Sounds and Zounds

Blemish by David Sylvian is a strange, beautiful, odd collection of near misses. It features, the sometimes disjoined guitar work of Derek Bailey and some sound works by Christian Fennesz. It is far from pop history of Mr. Sylivan as he explores a darker side of relationships with music and poetry. The Bailey / Sylvian songs are difficult to sit threw, disjoined guitar works with the feeling of forced lyrics. This Blemish takes you threw a ride of a mans personal disappointments, and expressing them as he explores a new world of sound sculpture. It is interesting study in sound but hard to listen to at times and is far from the pop world that many listeners may be expecting.

To every listener there is a time when everthing sounds the same, things no longer seem fresh. Well, The Books have broken the mold and have created a very creative ejoyable thought provoking CD called Lost and Safe. This CD is a mixture of home producted sounds, guitar, cello, sinth and samples. There are parts of Lost and Safe that reminds me of some of the more recent works of Bill Nelson samples. I think the sure joy is there ablilty to find a balance in simple guitar cords, static like samples and waves of cello’s. I found great enjoyment listening to this disc while commuting on the subways of Boston, which seem to add more complexly to the music and not interrupting the music. This disc has a mello edge to it that lends itself to the seasons of reflection. Lost and Safe is hours of listening and finding new sounds. It is one of the best CD of 2005.

I found myself listening to Arve Henriksen’s Chiaroscuro this past week, it seem very complementary to the weather outside, cold and quite. Mr. Henriksen is a trumpet player that uses his instrument in ways that make classically trained trumpeters scream. Thought I feel that he has add a layer of texture and magic to this instrument which allows deep exploration of these waves of soothing almost new age jazz. Some tracks include the Norwegian born Heriksen’s voice in a hi-pitched youthful tones that wash over the music like waves, in his native language. This soundscape has worked its way into my creative track list of albums for creation and concentration.