Ekova - Space Lullabies and Other Fantasmagore
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Music CD Cover
Artist: EkovaEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2001-01-30
Music Label: Six Degrees
Soundtracks:
- Steel Bird
- How Sweet Mal
- Aurora's Flight
- Moon Beseeched
- In The Kitchen
- Siip Siie
- Son Sourrit Pale
- Interlude
- The Chase
- A Soul's Delight
- Idem Soit Done
- The Storm
- Cruel Sister
- In The Garden
Free Music Notes for Space Lullabies and Other Fantasmagore
Free Music Review: Inventions of New Worlds
Hit: 5 Stars
On Space Lullabies and Other Fantasmagore, Ekova extends their formula of traditional North African music mixed heavily with Middle Eastern and English influences into even bolder areas. Fiercer and more electrified than their previous album, "Heaven's Dust," Space Lullabies nevertheless stays melodic and true to a folk roots orientation. In that respect, Space Lullabies recalls some of Hedningarna's frenzied, joyful, intensity in reinventing traditional musical forms. Space Lullabies is skillful and inventive, one of the more original and eye-opening albums in quite some time.The album begins simply then skillfully and gradually extends into more experimental music. The first song, "Steel Bird," is most reminiscent of their first album "Heaven's Dust," bright and bubbly with complex rhythms but a straightforward vocal line. But on "How Sweet Mal" the mood intensifies with electronics, strident vocals, and grand shifts in mood and tempo from operatic, to rai, to blues-ish dance. "Aurora's Flight" returns to a simpler, brighter vocal line but with layered syncopated rhythms and an unusual oud accompaniment. The haunting "Moon Beseeched" is a torch song that beautifully displays DuBois' soaring vocals. Though sung in English, "In the Kitchen" is thoroughly avant garde, slow and almost non-melodic and modal; it is the most unapproachable song on the album. The moods shift up quickly to "Siip Siie," a loud upbeat number, then back down to the ballad "Son Sourrit Pale," then back up to the frenetic and volatile "The Chase" - sounding almost grunge. The mood stays intense with "A Soul's Delight" where we suddenly have Khalatbari on vocals, with a highly orginal interpretation of a Rumi poem with oud and frame drum and a fierce electronic and dubbed backdrop. "Idem Soit Done" is a very danceable North African song, blending great oud work with techno themes. True to its name, "The Storm" is an intense techno dance track apparently influenced by the Asian Underground club scene. Shifting gears again, the band turns their eye to an English folk song "Cruel Sister," applying their distinct groove and DuBois' stunning voice to the ballad; a marvelous ten minutes worth of highly innovative music. "Cruel Sister is obviously the climax, as "In the Garden" is obviously a denoument. It's a polyphonic a capella poem with DuBois sampled numerous times. An interesting experiment but maybe only of interest to medieval music fans.
Space Lullabies and Other Fantasmagore Poster
Even given the trend of cultural crossover in music, Ekova inhabit a world uniquely all their own. Their second full release (following 1998's Heaven's Dust and 1999's remix compilation Soft Breeze & Tsunami Breaks) furthers Ekova's commitment to a pulsing, gently swaying mélange of exotic instrumentation and captivating vocals. What emerges is a new sort of global pop music, blending past with present, acoustic with electric; seldom have drones sounded so lively and a subtle undercurrent of electronic programming so organic. Vocalist-cellist Dierdre Dubois emotes from a deep well of her own digging, occasionally in English, frequently in a language of her own invention, and in who knows what other tongues? Iranian percussionist Arach Khalatbari and Algerian oud (Arabic lute) and guitar player Mehdi Haddab provide a dense, infinitely flexible bed for Dubois's incredible vocal flights of fancy. Ekova unquestionably evoke the ghost of Dead Can Dance at times, especially on numbers like the upbeat "Siip Siie," the a cappella "In the Garden," and "A Soul's Delight," which weds a text by Rumi to a hypnotic drone with striking chanted vocals by both Khalatbari and Dubois. But they are much more lively and suffused with a sly, intelligent mischief than the occasionally somber D.C.D. "The Chase" is incredibly fast without being frantic, an interstellar gypsy race from past to present; "The Storm" is as mesmerizing as the sea itself; and "Cruel Sister," a traditional English ballad covered by folk-rock pioneers Pentangle, is a modern epic that turns Ekova's rolling flow of sound into a wide-eyed torrent. Ekova's music is wonderfully full of life and perfectly accessible, and Space Lullabies should easily find a home with both armchair travelers of world beat and those at the center of the international dance floor. --Carl HanniDance & DJ Music CDs
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