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Azam Ali - Elysium For The Brave |
| MUSIC |
|
Atmospheric, moody electronics, Middle Eastern
aesthetics and gloriously fluid female vocals. Azam Ali here
presents a powerful blend of sonorous frame drums and digital
percussives that underpin her emotive songs - an array of
traditional acoustic instrumentation such as ney flute and
stringed lafta ground the album whilst the singing soars and
fills the air with a devout clarity, passionate intensity,
supremely confident and commanding. Bringing together her
schooling in Western classical, Indian, Persian and Eastern
European vocal traditions Azam's voice and style transcend
cultural barriers stirring deeply emotive visions of hazy
mystique and intimate reverie. English lyrics in a very un-English
setting, contemporary expertise producing timeless beauty
- a new turn into a fresh territory of sonic delights for
a singer whose stature is deservedly growing all the time. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
The
front cover features a chiaroscuro close-up portrait of the
singer, air-brush smooth against an intense blackness - the
lustre of a metal bracelet and matching ring. The limited
palette makes the colours all the more vivid and vibrant -
titles luxuriating in graphic swirls and splashes. I have
only the promotional sleeve and so can't comment on the remainder
of the packaging, but if what I have is anything to go by,
the quality is of a high standard - very tasteful. |
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| OVERALL |
|
Azam Ali is becoming
increasingly well known from her work with Vaz, her solo material,
her film score collaborations and last year's project Niyaz.
The chances are you've heard her somewhere even if you didn't
know who it was. Here she presents her second solo CD following
2002's highly acclaimed Portals Of Grace. Here Ali brings
a more synthetic backdrop to her music - synthesisers and
programming establishing a range of lush shades and silken
textures against which the organic elements are all the more
radiant. This exploration of electronic/acoustic is most effective
and hopefully something the singer will continue to develop
in the future. Elysium For The Brave is an excellent album
with obvious class and individuality - doubtless this will
appeal both to reverential global music purists and fans of
world fusion. |
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------Max
Corbacho & Bruno Sanfillipo - Indalo |
| STYLE |
|
Experimental ambience echoing
with alien winds and peculiar spatial resonance. Much of
Indalo is beatless textural layering, evocative soundscaping,
synths sweeping in calm oceanic swells - but there is rhythm
too, the deep throb of sonorous pots sending ripples across
the sound surface. Indalo is an album of slow graceful variation,
beats fade in almost undetected and later evaporate into
distant panoramas and empty flatlands, into nothingness.
Some pieces abyssal and dark - shadowy gusts and tenebrous
currents folding into one another. Environmental effects
enliven the rolling, undulating sonic plains alternately
suggestive of unfathomable depths or of imminent presence
- cicadas, breezes, ambiguous impacts some immense and way
down low. |
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| MOOD |
|
The
mood here is one of enigmatic seclusion - amorphous structures
and ambiguous sound sources stir up visions of remote places,
mysterious movement and uncertain isolation. There is an
edgy calm, a sense of soft energy in restrained langour
as though we are in the presence of something powerful and
beautiful. Some parts of the CD create a feeling of openness,
weightlessness as if the listener were a mote on the air
of a vast expanse. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
The
front cover of this album is an ambiguous photograph that
appears as a crack below a shallow pool or as a twig against
the night sky - a glowing orb or a reflected moon is overlaid
with leafy textures - Indalo the rainbow man, the man supporting
an arc above his head. The reverse of the sleeve booklet explains
the project - the Indalo image found on a sheltered rock face
inspiring the music. Inside is a landscape image of the Almeria
Province accompanied by brief credits. Track titles are on
the rear of the jewel case laid out on a graphically enhanced
scenic shot - shot through with that same rocky crack. |
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| OVERALL |
|
Max
Corbacho and Bruno Sanfillipo team up here to produce a
series of seven pieces built around their impressions from
a trip to Almeria in 2001. Hypnotised by the 'strange beauty'
of the landscape and the cryptic Indalo figure, the pair
have created in response a transportational sound that holds
an almost ritualistic mystique. The gradually evolving soundworlds
here tap into the psyche drawing up half-formed images and
stirring, shifting impressions. Released on the ad21music
label run by Max and Bruno. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
Indalo
will appeal to ambient fans that enjoy dense textures and
layered washes - mostly without percussion, yet with a tribal
spirit. Go for this one if you enjoy music evocative of breath-taking
location, suggestive of strange atmosphere. |
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Mathias Delplanque - Ma chambre quand je n'y
suis pas [Montréal] |
| MUSIC |
|
Sound installation - beatless, free of
melody and imposed structure. The sound emerges instantly
on this CD with no build up - hisses and shiftings swell
and drop, low droning layers groan below, dull booms resonating
through the low frequencies, remote and vast. Coruscating
tonalities twinkle and pulsate sounding somewhere between
a bell and a whistle. Other noises faintly explosive or
reminiscent of air movement occur at irregular intervals
- whining pitches arise and tonal build-ups that bleed away
into the omnipresent aural haze. This creation has no discernable
musical progression, no obvious sign of composition - comprised
instead of amplified found sounds presented gallery fashion. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
A
textured board sleeve holds both CD and art cards - all presented
in grey with a hint of olive. Elegant line art - the drawings
of Dove Allouche appear on the front cover, on the CD and
on three of the internal cards - the fourth contains an explanation
of the project in English on one side and French on the other.
Two photographs of the gallery wherein the music was originally
installed accompany the wording. Text on the outer cover is
minimal - nothing on the front, a simple title on the rear. |
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| OVERALL |
|
Mathias Delplanque
here delivers an esoteric recording that was initially a part
of the artist's residency at Montréal's Studio Cormier
in December 2004. The sounds are gathered 'silences' from
the studio - that is, the empty spaces of the studio were
recorded without human presence at the quietest parts of the
day. Once recorded, the results have been greatly amplified
revealing a surprising variety of sound. A ghostly emptiness
alive with magnified minutiae, eerie and otherworldly shifts
constantly in the ear - at once both familiar with displaced
normality and strangely alien and intriguing. This is a CD
for fans of experimental sound - consider Lithophonia for
something vaguely within similar territory. |
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------Na-Koja-Abad
- Deluvia |
| STYLE |
|
Submarine spaces, ambient
drift and gentle tribal rhythm. Deluvia immerses the listener
in deep water shade and slow motion current through careful
layering of synthetic tone and well integrated 'organika'
- frame-drums, dholak, djembe, shakers, rainstick, sand,
pebbles, sea-shells and chimes. The drones that well up,
morph and decay are in constant subtle movement, one layer
washing its transparencies across another - sonic ephemera
hanging in the mass of the tides. Ney flutes and whale-like
strains pierce the loneliness, for a while forcing back
the darkness, before once again sinking out of ear shot.
Long, drawn-out pads and heaving assemblages of sound combine
atonal turbulence and disturbances with brooding musical
undulations and harmonious flow.
|
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| MOOD |
|
Na-Koja-Abad
has created a series of inky sound pools that are dark and
murky, yet beautiful and appealing in their gloom - like the
darkness of submerged caverns, the obscurity of the lowest
of sea beds. There is the sense that you never quite know
what might next emerge out of the shadows - percussive effects
suggestive of ambiguous life forms or time-sculpted natural
formations. Mystery, uncertainty - lost in the vastness of
bewildering places, fascinating solitudes. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
Graphically
enhanced and textured photography fills all panels - ultramarine,
indigo, black. Aquatic vistas with emergent forms held in
pools of light. Again Na-Koja-Abad produces his own distinctive
imagery - rich in texture and luxuriating in background darkness.
Rock structures, coral flutes and tubes, text subdued and
dim - words working in harmony with imagery. The rear cover
presents the track titles and times; credits are on the reverse
of the inner booklet, the innermost panels given over entirely
to an undersea twilight. |
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| OVERALL |
|
Na-Koja-Abad's
fifth album is perhaps his most tenebrous - beats are infrequent
or very subtle and the ambient mass is dense and lightless.
Imagine the steady sway of deep ocean current, the to and
fro pull of an enormity of water - the surface far from sight,
uncertain presences somewhere off in the gloom. The seven
tracks fade into one another through brief silences softly
maintaining a constant mood throughout. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
Ambient
fans that enjoy smooth isolationist intensity will find this
an absorbing composition. This album goes further, lower,
deeper into the intriguing and lonely places Na-Koja-Abad
has explored on previous CDs - if you enjoyed the weightier
aspects of his earlier music you'll appreciate Deluvia. |
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------
Bruno Sanfilippo - InTRO |
| MUSIC |
|
A mixture of rhythmic and beatless cinematic
ambient. Bruno Sanfilippo brings together a broad range of
ethnic instruments, environmental sounds and digital effects
to develop his underlying musical structures here laid down
with synthesisers, strings, bells, chimes and pianos. Ambient
zones, soft and faint build into harmonious passages where
melody can be dominant, clear and tuneful or at times understated
- simple motifs rolling over humming drones. There are introspective
piano lines that reverberate against sonic breezes - curling,
unhurried bars of dreamlike music, blissful and quite beautiful.
There are airy pads and meandering mists and hazes of sound
- crisp percussives or droplets disturbing the smooth surfaces.
The final track is a delightfully wistful piano piece with
an eastern pipe dolefully entwining the main theme - truly
emotive and achingly heart-rending. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
Sepia
imagery covers the outer panels of this CD jewel case - uncertain
montages, small photographs overlaid upon an indistinct figure
- shadows and bright lights. Track titles are on the reverse
in a simple elegant font. The inner booklet contains a monochrome
portrait of the artist on stone steps and recording details
and credits. Behind the CD is a dual language portion of text
expounding the project in poetic language. A coil of copper
wire sits in the frame of the jewel case - delicate and ornamental
- a nice touch of individuality. |
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| OVERALL |
|
This series of seven
contemplative compositions further explores Bruno Sanfilippo's
interest in the unfettered possibilities of dreams. Each
piece has a title beginning with the letters InTRO - InTROvoices,
InTROpassion, InTROvisions ... There is a collaborative
piece with Alio Die (Stefano Musso) InTROsacro which can
also be found in a remixed form on Alio Die's The Flight
of Real Image. Serene and otherworldly - InTRO has moments
of haunting weightlessness, pools of comfortable warmth.
In general an inviting and harmonious album that draws the
listener into restful reverie - on into emotional swells
and wonderfully indulgent quiet melancholy.
|
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------Conni
St. Pierre - Flower Spirits |
| STYLE |
|
Impressionist ambient new age
flute and keyboard meditations. Flower Spirits features a
variety of flute sounds with an improvisational, meandering
quality, tranquil hovering melodies that bring the spirit
of the great outdoors right into your head on a scented pillow.
Gentle pianos, chimes and bell-tone synths form undulating
beds of sonic blossom that generally act as a backdrops, occasionally
billowing up to steal the attention. Buffalo drum, pueblo
drum and other subtle or muted percussion elements laid down
by hand propel some pieces along in easy patterns, soft, padding
deep within the mix. |
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| MOOD |
|
Introspective
and dreamy - Conni St Pierre creates visions of leafy glades
and dappled meadows where the vastness of the sky meets the
intricacy and slow motion of blooming flora. Very relaxing
and natural in loose structure, this is music that could fill
your ears carrying you off into inspired reverie, or could
equally just tint your environment as subtle background music
bringing its calming effects unnoticed. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
In
pastel blue, green, pink and white a graphic flower dominates
the front cover simple, intricate - deceptive, ring upon ring
of irregular regularity. Uncomplicated text appearing almost
handwritten rises into the suggestion of sky. On the reverse
track titles, instruments and credits can be found along with
contact information. Within, monochrome photography juxtaposes
the artist against a plain of wild flowers - white panels
providing additional background details, each track here accompanied
by a brief note on the flowers described in the music.
|
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| OVERALL |
|
Ten
tracks dedicated to different aspects of wild blossom - a
carefully crafted arrangement that seems effortlessly artless
and natural. Following after the Legends trilogy, this CD
is to be the first of a series inspired by the natural world
- delicate themes on fluted breezes guaranteed to soften the
atmosphere and perfume the senses. Flower Spirits is released
on Conni's own Smash Easy label and was produced and mastered
at her own studio surrounded by a private wildlife refuge.
The artwork is her own. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
This
is music that will aid relaxation and periods of contemplation.
Flower Spirits will appeal mainly to new age listeners that
lean on the ambient side where melodies are understated with
emphasis on mood and colour. |
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