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Victoria ( BC ) - Canada
Website : http://www3.telus.net/wildsage2/
Joined : August 16, 2009
Latest starred albums
Last starred artists
Favorite external artists
Loreena McKennitt*, Mercan Dede, Ben Heppner*, Barbra Streisand, Tafelmusik*, Diana Krall*, Concentus Musicus Wien*, Leonard Cohen, Glenn Gould
Favorite tags
Classical, World, earlymusic, New Age, medieval, renaissance, baroque, Folk
Although my background is entirely different, I enjoy many genres of music. Metal and hard rock are not really among them, yet I have realized from all the sampling I have been doing of this artist that he is a phenomenally good guitarist and deserves to be a starred artist for that reason, even on my page. I have yet many more albums to sample (his new age ones likely more my thing) but here is a guitar album that I can comfortably relate to straight away as it is has its "mellow" moments. Impressive.
I like very much your demo tracks. If my French were as good as it should be, I would probably like them even more. Keep up the good work.
I am actually a bit astonished to have found some genuine "classical" repertory on this site, and with professional level performances, live at that. I must check the other albums in this series, and indeed the larger festival itself which features performances in a wide variety of genres.
Having enjoyed Solaris in general, written positive reviews of some albums, and marked as a favoured group; here I find I have to address one of my pet peeves which occurs all too often on albums with any of the ambient, electronic, new age, or whatever tags. Namely audible and intelligible spoken text. This, to me, is a distraction rather than an enhancement of a piece of music UNLESS it meets one of the following four criteria:
1. Is set to pitches (lyrical-song) or (angular-sprechstimme), or
2. Is a recitation of poetry relevant to the theme of the movement or piece, and accompanied appropriately, or
3. Is a word which is inherently "musical" with or without its meaning attached; e.g. in English the word "silver" would be an example, or
4. Is electronically manipulated with or without the requirement of comprehensibility; i.e. becomes a musical ingredient.
The repetition of audible words in this album (really no more than the title element of the movement) detracted rather than enhanced the music itself. Just my opinion (although I could cite neurological arguments in support of this view).
I admit I was immediately attracted to the title and cover art of this album, having studied Sufism in Turkey, but also in Northwest Africa where I gained familiarity with sacred (and secular) song forms. I confess I can't find any connection to these on the album (indeed only the first track promises that), but I did enjoy the album none the less.
I confess that I was initially attracted by the ankh and the promise of things "Egyptological". And as it turns out I wasn't disappointed. I think that I like this best of all the works of Solaris precisely because it is the most congruent in terms of "theme" orientation, and stylistic manipulation musically.
As I have mentioned elsewhere in reviews, many "albums" on this site are really composites of works, often differing significantly in idiom and style; and for myself, I prefer to stay in one "groove" when choosing an album for serious listening.
(Sampler albums of course are very useful in acquainting the listener with the variety of styles offered by the artist in question.)
Anyway, this release offers creative manipulation of the materials selected by the composer in a cogent manner, not an arbitrary one as is sometimes encountered.
In this new album, Subirana (a competent composer) has produced a work of stylistic consistency and structural design; qualities only partly realized in "Secrets" and I thought missing in "Point of no return" which was for me merely "no point" (despite rave reviews to the contrary).
I prefer style consistency on an album unless it is a sampler. If multiple styles are to be used, I would prefer that fusion was prominent, and not an abrupt slide from one style to another.
Skilled mixing and consistent in overall style. This latter point is worth mentioning because it seems so many albums I have listened to here lose their way, as it were; with stylistic consistency the victim. Therefore this seem quite a bit better than many in the genre. Nice cover art. (I confess that the art, and the album and track titles attracted me.)
I like SaReGaMa. The use of acoustic and other sounds etc. is always organized in an intelligently composed manner, not merely pieces of material thrown together arbitrarily as one so often finds. The result is better fusion and a much more interesting listening experience.
Because of the multiple styles used on this single album, not always in a particularly "fused" way: (the footnotes acknowledge the different source material), it makes it difficult to know the best ordering of tracks. If I am not mistaken, a number of SaReGaMa's albums do feature multiple styles, and I am beginning to discover that composite albums are rather common on this site.
I am more used to albums conceived as a unified whole in regard to style and theme because I want to be in a particular "groove" when choosing an album for serious listening. Samplers have their place and can be very useful in discovering a group's range, but can I make a plea for more stylistically consistent albums too??
