Kairos 111, October 2019 on Concertzender

Is Wo. actually catching up? It seems like it, although there is still two months to go. In the following below Wo. again lets his mind wander while hearing mostly unknown music to him, if he even dares calling it music. It sometimes comes to that. Wander in all sorts of directions. Associations, thoughts, impressions or plain descriptions. Anything goes really. .No makes his program and Wo. listens and shares his instant on the spot thoughts. You can't get closer to the working of his brain actually as a listener. So here you go. Perhaps you will even a get a close insight into that working or one yourself.

The familiar tones sound out, the dark voice announces the show and here it goes with a long drawn note and violins or synths. That may well be. It sounds like a theme from a movie where girls and ladies may cry somewhere along the movie from happiness or sadness. It could be either, perhaps even both. It means that 'Inner Peace' is a piece of music that is easy to listen to.

Believe it or not, the instrumental music morphs into one of those beautiful songs of I Am Oak from his latest album 'Osmosis'. 'Swells' is one of my favourite tracks on the album. The softness, the gentleness is something that caresses the listener. Even when a darker side joins in.

And there Richard Newall returns with a larger part of his 'Inner Peace'. No, it is not a 100% easy mix, but only because I know. A listener not knowing either work, may well be convinced that a singer joined for a while in 'Inner Peace'. The composition knows the same level of softness and gentleness 'Swells' has within it. The music comes and goes like waves upon the beach (to quote Jim Morrison). That is the image that forms in my head. I also find myself thinking 'why would I want to listen to this?' and answering to myself 'that is beside the point'. Listening to 'Inner Peace' is about surrendering. Totally go with the flow of the composition, as a flow it is. Soft, gentle, caressing. Here is the musical equivalent of my meditation musical waves, where one can imagine being carried by.

Does 'Inner Peace' leave us? No it becomes a part of the contribution by Sumie. She is an artist who Erwin Zijleman wrote on this blog about some years ago. Not really known to me. Her soft sung 'Walk Away' seems to have become an integral part of Richard Newall's work. This stops, I think, as I haven't a clue, when the song flashes out with a beautiful trumpet accompaniment (the word solo would be overstating it) and soft drums. Sumie's contribution fully fits the mood conjured up by .No in this Kairos. Somehow I feel warmer, as if I am on the beach near those waves. Everyone knowing me closely, knows that I am not really one for the beach, so will be surprised at how good I am feeling.

Sumie leaves and Newall, with Colin Bates I should have added lines ago, returns. For a bit firmer, mind everything is relative with inner peace, section of 'Inner Peace'.

When I finally say goodbye to the duo, five fragments are presented to me. 'Inventions' by Echo Tropism. A female voice, with echo on it, sings a few notes. A single soft drone hovers in the background. Then a piano joins, playing single chords. The vocal melody changes again and the piano becomes more active. As everybody loving music knows, words are not a necessity to have a beautiful melody. Echo Tropism produces a few in 'Inventions'. Simple, effective and beautiful. I think I recognise the voice but can't point a name to it. Portland, Oregon is the only reference I find googling fast.

She leaves me over the next contribution. Lorenzo Masotto returns to Kairos as he has for three months now. 'Reverbs' is a more electronic piece with a faint Chinese influence. Which comes from an exotic sounding instrument. The drone in the background is the constant, keeping it all together. As if Pink Floyd with a weird instrument. I'm simply waiting for David Gilmore to join in with that iconic yet weird riff in 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'.

What does join is a form of percussion on an instrument I can't place. Somewhere along the way Masotto was replaced by Klaus Wiese. 'El Hadra, The Mystic Dance' is the title, so I can only wonder where the former ended and the latter started. The mood is beautiful with the percussion playing a melody, the drone and other instruments weaving in and out of the two main staples of the composition.

The poem is about a little girl on the beach, so there is that beach feeling I had. Wija Oortwijn's poem 'Luchtkasteel' fits perfectly with the mystical dancing behind it.

Klaus Wiese truly fades out to be replaced by the Kings Singers, a true break in the program as for the first time the mood is changed. The mood changes from relaxed and leisured to serious and dark. No matter how beautiful the choir sings Taverner's 'The Lamb', I am transported from the beach to a dark medieval church. From the fresh sea air to the close and sultry smell of candles and incense. Unintended I am transported to Christmas, with singing about the child and the lamb.

Those listening closely will have noticed that sparse notes traversed in and out of Taverner's work. When it takes over for real, it is Sytze Pruiksma's 'Nightingale'. Yes, another bird inspired composition, but also, again, of extreme beauty. The weirdest thing is, that I can imagine De Kift playing this in its own eclectic fanfare-punk style.

Pruiksma is replaced by a single classical guitar and then by female voices singing in a high and exulted way. 'Mareta no’m faces plorar' is a composition from an unknown person from 1700, now played by Montserrat Figueras. Believe it or not, this is a Catalan lullaby. In a way it is to frivolous to be church music. That is how I scored it first, but though marginal, it is not serious enough to be. I will not state here that I've become a fan, but do recognise beauty when I hear it.

Night has descended over Kairos. A nightingale mostly sings at night, a lullaby is sung when children have to go to bed. 'Earthsong' has an inner darkness. The notes are dark, the atmosphere is and the singing is of someone who is tired. Karunesh, a German with a love for mystical music from south Asia, takes his time to work out 'Earthsong' and lets it flow slowly, laying and crossing a bridge with the first section of this Kairos. The warmth of the beach returns to me. Were it not that before a female choir sets in, I notice that the piano music has nothing to do with Karunesh. It is Low Roar, a veteran of Kairos by now. Again I never truly noticed the change.

It is the Hildegard from Bingen songs, that are simply not for me. I will leave you with 'O Ignis Spiritus' and let you fend for yourself. I have been distracted. What does a nightingale sound like? I notice that I do not have a clue and want to find out. Will I recognise it after I click play on Google? A bird that starts to sing, only from spring onwards, after the blackbird has stopped? I can't remember having ever heard a bird after the blackbird.

The singing reaches ever higher regions in the background against my thoughts on blackbirds and nightingales. Will it ever stop? It almost seems like it will not, but then a piano chord comes forward and the ladies singing are slowly pushed away. Slow chords come through my speaker. Another piano player taking his time, like so many do on Kairos. The meditation part of course. John Tilbury playing Howard Skempton.

There was no chance to settle into the tune as violins kick in, as do cello's and a piano. Cyrius B's 'Les Fragments De La Nuit'. A slow, heavy composition. The notes are all at best played in the mid section of the respective instruments. The title is well chosen. This is ideal music to hear just before falling asleep. Although the stops may cause one to get a fright when the music starts all over again, if you did fall asleep before Kairos is over.

Wo.



You can listen to this Kairos here:

https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_525374/

This is the playlist:


00:09  Richard Newall. ‘Inner Peace (instrumental)’ (fragment).
Album: ‘Self-Empowerment’ by Colin Bates & Richard Newall. One Voice Music.
02:07  I am Oak. Swells. Album ‘Osmosis’. Snowstar Records.
04:26  Richard Newall. ‘Inner Peace (instrumental)’ (fragment).
Album: ‘Self-Empowerment’ by Colin Bates & Richard Newall. One Voice Music.
11:53  Sumie. Walk away. Album ‘Lost in Light’. Bella Union.
16:14  Richard Newall. ‘Inner Peace (instrumental)’ (fragment).
Album: ‘Self Empowerment’ by Colin Bates & Richard Newall. One Voice Music.
17:39  Inventions. Echo Tropism (five fragments).
Album ‘Inventions’. Temporary Residence TRR 231.
19:32  Lorenzo Masotto. Reverbs. Album ‘Frames’. Lady Blunt Records.
23:27  Klaus Wiese. El-Hadra (fragment).
Album ‘el-Hadra, the Mystik Dance. Aquarius International Music AQ 0094.
33:10  John Tavener. The Lamb. The King’s Singers.
Album ‘Sermons and Devotions. RCA Catalyst 8287664299 2.
36:14  Sytze Pruiksma. Nightingale. Album Conference of the Birds. Self-released. 
38:14  Anonymous (approx. 1700). Mareta no’m faces plorar.
Album ‘Montserrat Figueras – Ninna Nanna’. Alia Vox AV9826.
44:03  Karunesh. Earthsong (reprise). Album ‘Global Spirit’. TAW 60342.
45:15  Ryan Karazija. 13. Low Roar.
Album ‘Once in a long, long while’. Nevado Records 823674059620.
49:20  Hildegard von Bingen. O Ignis Spiritus. Oxford Camerata; Jeremy Summerly.
Album ‘Hildegard von Bingen / Heavenly revelations / Hymns, Sequences, Antiphons, Responds. Naxos 8.550998.
54:52  Howard Skempton. Sweet Chariot, for piano. John Tilbury, piano.
Album ‘Well, well Cornelius’. Sony SK 66482.
55:26  Les Fragments de la Nuit. Cyrius B.
Album ‘Les Fragments de la Nuit’. EquilibriumMusic EQM028.
Het gedicht ‘Luchtkasteeltjes’ is van Wija Oortwijn.