Edensong - The Fruit Fallen

Artist:           Edensong

Album:         The Fruit Fallen

Year:             2008

Line-Up:       James Byron Schoen - Electric and acoustic guitars, vocals
Matt Cozin - Drums
T.D. Towers - Bass
Michael Drucker - Violin
Eve Harrison - Flute
Rachel Kiel - Flute
Arthur Sugden - Piano, organ
Ben Wigler - Electric guitar
Kerry Prep - Piano, organ
Sam Baltimore - Cello
Joe Swain - Violin
Anthony Waldman - Drums, percussion
Ben Doleac - Backing vocals
Azalea Birch - Tablas
Hannah Goodwin-Brown - Cello
Joaquin Cotler - African percussion
Neely Bruce - Church organ
Steve Devita - Percussion
Adam Bernier - Synthesizer programming

Label:           Independent

When a modern progressive rock meets the old school of the 70’s, such as Jethro Tull, Rush and Genesis, dominated by folky and acoustic atmosphere, the result sounds more or less like The Fruit Fallen by Edensong. This refreshing debut from the promising band from the States is a rather interesting piece of work actually. Almost entirely from the mind and hands of James Byron Schoen, The Fruit Fallen combines classical music, heavy metal, 70’s prog, folk rock, and includes hints of numerous other genres and subgenres. The biggest problem with this kind of music is usually the matter of holding all of it together. An ambitious project, I would say, but it does not disappoint.

The global problem with prog-rock debut albums (or actually with any other debut albums as well) is their profusion and difficulties of reaching audience. These two are tightly linked together, as music is nowadays made more than ever before, and because of the internet the field of promoting has expanded utterly more than you can shake a stick at. This leads to a phenomenon where quality is buried underneath quantity, not to mention the effect of mainstream popular music. Because of all this, it is critical that the debut is solid and reaches listeners. The Fruit Fallen is solid as a rock, but hasn’t reached and satisfied as many listeners as I would imagine it could. The fact that this album is an independent release by James Byron Schoen makes it of course harder to reach audience.

The singing style of Byron Schoen reminds me a bit of Ian Andersons. The frequently appearing flute might have some subconscious effect in this train of thought. Well, Baron Schoen has listed Anderson as one of his influences. The Fruit Fallen creates a very interesting blend of feelings with diverse composition. In the same song, you can loosen up listening to beautiful and charming melodies and all of a sudden feel the adrenalin in your veins when at times even chaotic harmonies and heavy sound grasps your attention. The album flows with the alternate of these two and this is done so smooth the thought of it being forced or inappropriate will not occur.

All is well done: talented musicians playing well composed and interesting music with a religious lyrical theme. Song called “The Sixth Day” is a fine example on what the album has to offer. At least I will stay tuned for more of this in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO-Xlma2TM0 (Studio)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifaIrtJYOho (Live)

Written by: Oz

Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal Erzincan - The Wind

Artist:          Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal Erzincan

Album:        The Wind

Year:           2006

Line-up:      Kayhan Kalhor – kamancheh

                   Erdal Erzincan – baglama

                   Ulas Özdemir – divan baglama

Label:         ECM

Recently, I had the pleasure and the opportunity to hear and see Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan in concert, where these two internationally recognised masters of their respective musical cultures and instruments met. Their performance of was a musical experience of the utter most beauty and marvel which left the whole audience in a state of tranquility and awe. Luckily, for those of who do not have the opportunity to attend their concerts or wish to return to the musical sphere of Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan, the two musicians have captured the music on an album called The Wind.

Kayhan Kalhor is an Iranian kamancheh player and composer, master in both Persian and Kurdish music. He has studied with numerous teachers and in different parts of Iran learning various traditions of music as well as studying Western classical music in Rome and Ottawa. Hence, he has a wide range of musical influences in his playing incorporation folk modes and melodies of Kurdish and Turkic traditions to Persian classical musical structures. The main instrument of Kalhor is the Persian bowed string instrument called kamancheh which means ”little bow” in Persian. It has four metal strings and the body consists of a long upper neck and a lower bowl-shaped resonating chamber.

Though Erdal Erzincan might not enjoy the same international success as Kayhan Kalhor, he is still considered one of the most brilliant and innovative baglama players in today's Anatolia, a raising star in the music field of Turkey. In recent years, Erzican has started to build an international career with much praise from the public. He plays the baglama, sometimes known as the saz, a plucked string instrument found in Eastern Mediterranean, Near East and Central Asia. It has three main parts: the bowl, the spruce sounding board and the neck to which the frets are tied with fishing line, which allows them to be adjusted. The Turkish baglama has seven strings divided in the courses of two, two and three and they are played by with tezene, similar to a guitar pick.

The Wind was recorded in November 2004, and it consists of one continuous performance which is divided in to 12 parts on the CD. The music is built around improvisations based on Persian and Turkish music, arranged by Kalhor and Erzincan. One might use the term musical journey, which I feel is becoming somewhat a cliché in this blog, but that would be a little misleading when describing this album. More than a grand and spectacular journey The Wind is an intimate conversation between to private persons, a musical prayer of deeply emotional and spiritual nature. Often, in the case of cultural fusion projects such as this, you might hear talk of musical dialogue and exchange of musical ideas. Here, however, the kamancheh of Kalhor and the baglama of Erzincan blend into each other so seamlessly that together they form a new coherent musical whole. Together Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan, with sublime rhythms and rich melodies, create a transcendental musical realm which leaves the listener with a deeply relaxed and a calm state.

To me, The Wind is like a musical poem; it might seem small at first but with time it reveals to have an entire universe within itself. You must immerse yourself in it undistracted to truly appreciate it as a whole, as a sincere piece of creative activity. You have to keep on getting back to it every once in a while, and when you do, you will find every time a small detail which you might have missed before; a nuance, a melodic motif, a rhythmic pattern, a meaningful silence, an idea behind the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8fAscnvkyM

written by Παναγιωτης

Wu Jinglue - Sunny Spring

Album:      Sunny Spring

Artist:        Wu Jinglue

Line-Up:    Wu Jinglue - Guqin

Label:         Silverwolf Records

It was my driving test and my teacher introduced an idea of choosing my own music for the ride. You should pick something that calms your nerve and your body, she suggested. Something that would make the situation feel less awkward and uncomfortable. Just a few weeks before the test, I had found this incredible musical gem from the land of billion people and I obeyed my teacher’s suggestion. As Wu Jinglue played Sunny Spring in a celestial manner, I did pass the test.

Few earlier blog posts have been related to the merging of the East and the West, but let us now venture forth into the oriental lands and concentrate on only one of those. Wu Jinglue (吳景略) was a Chinese musician, famous for playing the guqin, a traditional Chinese instrument. Not that long ago me and my colleague paid a visit at a lecture on Chinese traditional music. It was fairly unfamiliar world for a two Scandinavians, but during that lecture I actually perceived the fact that this music, the culture – together with the language - is thousands of years old, full of various instrument families, melodies and interpretations. The exotic tradition is still waiting to be studied more thoroughly, but this brilliant glimpse on the edge of it may still drill into the ears of a courageous explorer.

Sunny Spring is a double-CD and some of the songs are Wu Jinglue’s solo on guqin but most of the songs include flutes as well. Just one or two instruments can still capture your attention enough to drown in beautiful music.

The music tells tales and describes landscapes without words. Usually, the theme of the story is strongly related to nature, a common phenomenon in Chinese culture, take shaolin monks and their aim of imitating animals for protection as a foundation for martial arts for instance. In the mythology of Chinese traditional music Ling Lung (伶倫 ) actually constructed bamboo flutes, which were tuned to the sound of birds. This music aims at mirroring the sound of earth: water flowing softly in the river during spring time, a lovely birdsong echoing in the wind of the misty mountains. It has the power of rebooting your quiescent call of nature for aural pleasure and charming tranquility. This smooth ride is worth of digging, even though the whole essence of this piece might be somewhat obscure for a West-oriented musical mind.

Take a leap by expanding your music taste and challenging your musical customs.

Here is a piece by Wu Jinglue, and although it is not from Sunny Spring, it’s a fine example on his music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMztoZXw2l8

written by Oz

Yatha Sidhra - A Meditation Mass

 

Artist:       Yatha Sidhra

Album:     A Meditation Mass

Year:        1974

Line-up:   Rolf Fichter – Moog synthesizer, Indian flute, vibes, electric piano, electric guitar, 

                                        vocals

                 Klaus Fichter – drums, percussion

                 Matthias Nicolai – electric 12-string guitar, bass

                 Peter Elbracht - flute

Label:       Brain

Yatha Sidhra is a short lived German group of the 1970's. Later music historians labeled the band as a part of Krautrock genre which is a generic name used to describe experimental music groups which were active in West Germany in the late 1960's and throughout 1970's. If you are unfamiliar with the Krautrock scenes, I suggest you check out the BBC documentary The Rebirth of Germany, to which you can find a link at the end of this post. Yatha Sidhra, founded by the Fichter brothers who were trying to form their ideal band for a while, finally hit the right note in 1973 when their band Brontosaurus changed its name to Yatha Sidhra thus also marking a change in their musical identity. Year later the album A Meditation Mass was released and it remains the only official release of the band.

In the previous post, my colleague wrote about the east meets the west musical fusion projects where a western artist teams up with an eastern artist trying to fuse the music of their culture creating a new and rich sounding musical world. The phenomenon was born in the 1960's when especially Indian master musicians such as Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan launched their international careers in Europe and USA. The coming of eastern music to the West also inspired a lot of western groups to draw inspiration to their own music from the eastern musical traditions.

As you might already have guessed from the band and album name, Yatha Sidhra and A Meditation Mass are heavily influenced by the eastern cultural elements. Drawing from the ethnic and meditative influences A Meditation Mass is a long piece divided into four parts with two musical themes with two variations from each one. The albums can be seen as a concept album inspired by Buddhist philosophy even tough the album is almost entirely instrumental.

The aim of the brothers was to create an exotic and dreamy musical landscape built around electric guitars and bass emulating a drone provided in the Hindustani classical music by the tambura to accomapany the melody. Meanwhile the Moog synthesizer and the flute (which is credited as the Indian flute which could be the bansuri) create the melodic centre of the music. Through out the album percussion instruments appear to play hypnotic tribal rhythms. The music shifts from ethnic spacey ambient to psychedelic rock and to swinging and more upbeat jazz-rock. Due to the Buddhist philosophy, the piece is made cyclic as the album ends the way it started.

A Meditation Mass is a true hidden gem of the 70's krautrock scene. It is a beautiful, atmospheric, psychedelic and meditative (as the title suggests) musical journey, which will take you the exciting crossroads of the East and the West. Listened comfortably in arm chair or a sofa, served with a cup of tea for example, A Meditation Mass can be truly an escapist aural pleasure – especially this time of the year.

The BBC Documentary ”Rebirth of Germany” on Krautrock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHUwkYkn_kA

Part 1 of A Meditation Mass:

http://www.progarchives.com/mp3.asp?id=1068

Written by Παναγιωτης