Reviews

Although it can be useful to know the background to a release it is for me purely an interest and not a necessity. What counts is what my ears detect. Others have commented on the source vocal material and its content but I shall not. I shall concentrate solely on the musical value of the completed work.

This type of work tends to come in two varieties. You can get dramatic vocals with a supporting musical arrangement or quieter vocals with a more dramatic soundtrack to enhance things. This work comes into the second category. The vocal presentation here is somewhat static, you get the impression it is being presented as a book reading rather than a speech giving. The effect of the voice is rather like a vocal equivalent of the musical drone. I saw the word "mesmeric" in another review and that is probably as good a single word description as any other.

On to the music side. The impression given is one of noise. At times we get swirling, looping variations with effects a plenty as the voice is taken over, distorted and dispatched elsewhere. Then a return to normality of noise, noise and an assortment of more noise. I did find some of it overdone and lacking in control but the general feeling that comes through is not unpleasant and it marries with the vocals quite well.

So to the verdict. Vocally, I give it 4 out of 5. I would have appreciated a little more tonal variation here and there, particularly at the key points in the reading. I didn't expect vocal gymnastics but even drones do have subtle changes within them. Musically, I also score 4 out of 5. My only real concern is that the musical emphasis does not coincide with the text ones. The text ones are fixed, even if not highlighted by Ivan, so the musical ones need to coincide with them and they don't. They do appear but in odd places.

All in all, I found this to be not just a good work but rather, a really, very good one. I enjoyed it and even at 2.30 in the morning it did not send me to sleep!