Nine Horses - Snow Borne Sorow
Nine Horses
Snow Borne Sorrow
Samadhi Sound 2005
performed by:
David Sylvian/Steve Jansen/Burnt Friedman
additional personnel:
Arve Henriksen, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Stina Nordenstam...
David Sylvian has had a rough past few years. His last solo release, Blemish, was a dark, discordant, minimalist ride through the mind of man whose marriage of over a decade had come undone (to singer and performance artist Ingrid Chavez), had severed the saftey net relationship with longtime major label Virgin, and who seemed to have had the proverbial rug just generally pulled form under him. It was a stark, bleak bleauty that seemed like a chapter of personal catharsis. It was also truly a solo record, with almost no collaborators or session players; an isolation that the music reflected unapologetically.
Now he returns with an album under the group name Nine Horses, a collaboration with regular cohort and sibling Steve Jansen (the two have played together since their first days as glam-rock wannabes and moving into art-rock scions Japan almost 3 decades ago), and electronic mixologist Burnt (Bernd) Friedman.
The album is still dark and melancholic for the most part, but it shows the first signs of hope and renewal, both lyrically and very much musically, hinting towards earlier works like his solo work Gone To Earth (which also featured Sakamoto and King Crimson overmind Robert Fripp) and to the Rain Tree Crow project. A lush, clean soundscape of synth washes, tapping percussions and flourishes of muted trumpet, piano and staccato guitar phrases slip in and out of the open arrangements. The cryptic additional female vocals on tracks like the slinky Wonderful World are well used to balance Sylvian. Jansen plays trap kit and pads with his typical aplomb; engaging but never distracting. Friedman helps ad his funky, fringe electronic science to cuts like Darkest Bird and Serotonin, adding a punchy quality that gives the album an overall bigger breadth. Sylvian has a velvet, warm croon, and it exudes an ambience on these tracks I can only describe as "nocturnal". The overall result has mixed minimalist electronica, post-rock, organic jazz, art-pop and avant-garde brilliance. This music is a sumptuous, thick collection of what would be dazzling, were it not for the fact its genius lies in its self-effacement, rather than any attempt to force you to understand its grandeur.
Something to soak up on a quiet winter night, you just feel it.
Their website, as well as the record label has one making of movie, some sound clips, and info about the group.
You might like this if you like:
Marc Hollis/later period Talk Talk
Massive Attacks more sparse matrial
Coldfinger's first EP
Peter Gabriel - Up
Flanger
Marc Isham - Blue Sun
Snow Borne Sorrow
Samadhi Sound 2005
performed by:
David Sylvian/Steve Jansen/Burnt Friedman
additional personnel:
Arve Henriksen, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Stina Nordenstam...
David Sylvian has had a rough past few years. His last solo release, Blemish, was a dark, discordant, minimalist ride through the mind of man whose marriage of over a decade had come undone (to singer and performance artist Ingrid Chavez), had severed the saftey net relationship with longtime major label Virgin, and who seemed to have had the proverbial rug just generally pulled form under him. It was a stark, bleak bleauty that seemed like a chapter of personal catharsis. It was also truly a solo record, with almost no collaborators or session players; an isolation that the music reflected unapologetically.
Now he returns with an album under the group name Nine Horses, a collaboration with regular cohort and sibling Steve Jansen (the two have played together since their first days as glam-rock wannabes and moving into art-rock scions Japan almost 3 decades ago), and electronic mixologist Burnt (Bernd) Friedman.
The album is still dark and melancholic for the most part, but it shows the first signs of hope and renewal, both lyrically and very much musically, hinting towards earlier works like his solo work Gone To Earth (which also featured Sakamoto and King Crimson overmind Robert Fripp) and to the Rain Tree Crow project. A lush, clean soundscape of synth washes, tapping percussions and flourishes of muted trumpet, piano and staccato guitar phrases slip in and out of the open arrangements. The cryptic additional female vocals on tracks like the slinky Wonderful World are well used to balance Sylvian. Jansen plays trap kit and pads with his typical aplomb; engaging but never distracting. Friedman helps ad his funky, fringe electronic science to cuts like Darkest Bird and Serotonin, adding a punchy quality that gives the album an overall bigger breadth. Sylvian has a velvet, warm croon, and it exudes an ambience on these tracks I can only describe as "nocturnal". The overall result has mixed minimalist electronica, post-rock, organic jazz, art-pop and avant-garde brilliance. This music is a sumptuous, thick collection of what would be dazzling, were it not for the fact its genius lies in its self-effacement, rather than any attempt to force you to understand its grandeur.
Something to soak up on a quiet winter night, you just feel it.
Their website, as well as the record label has one making of movie, some sound clips, and info about the group.
You might like this if you like:
Marc Hollis/later period Talk Talk
Massive Attacks more sparse matrial
Coldfinger's first EP
Peter Gabriel - Up
Flanger
Marc Isham - Blue Sun
posted by theloniusfunk at 7:45 PM
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