Kairos 124, December 2020 on Concertzender

"Kairos, a meditation on contemporary music". These are the exact words, in translation, that the warm pleasant voice says over the familiar introductory music. I have heard it dozens of times by now. And never really listened. All of I sudden I realised that the message is only partly true. Had we had original recordings dating centuries back and not roughly over 100 years, . No would have made us listen to Hildegard von Bingen's voice or those of the choir she would have her compositions sing. The original recordings of Brahms. etc., and not the more modern day recordings. The recordings may be contemporary, some of the music certainly is not. That aside, let's dive into the Kairos of four months ago. It comes with a motto: "You don't need more time, just more attention. Empty Your Head!" Exactly what a good Kairos does for me, when I'm either in the mood or susceptible to emptying my head. It doesn't work always, like last month. Doe Maar already sang: "Er zit een knop op je TV", there's one on my radio, ahum, Internet connection, as well, but perseverance is another trait needed in your reporter. Where will it lead me from here?

The swing into the first contribution is effortless once again. Longheld notes wash over me, intent to get me into the listening mood. I see myself lying on a beach hearing the crashing waves on the beach, one after the other, so regularly that they almost disappear from consciousness. The sound of Sunmoonstar is sharp, making sure it does not disappear. I notice Eastern European, either Slavic or Greek, lettering in the titles.

Somewhere in this all, a choir comes in, creating an even more tranquil state to the mood already in place. The synthesizer rolls on. There's absolutely no rush in this music. I can't help but getting impressed by the beauty and the light that are suggested by this music. With a title called 'Inner Peace' this is a prerequisite. I can't imagine a Slayer song called this, let alone having the same effect on me, to give a totally opposite example of the music of Colin Bates & Richard Newall.

A guitar moves into the whole, playing a slow, repetitive two chord progression. A high voice sings in a language that is hard to discern. It could be an imaginary language for all I can tell. The mood is totally continued by the song of Moonchy & Tobias, an album that I did not review a while back, because the voice was too much for my ears to take. In this context though I notice that 'Portus' is totally relaxing and exactly what I need on this early Sunday afternoon, on a grey cold day.

Everything drops away to be replaced by a single, slow-played piano with an immense lot of sustain keeping the sound in place for as long as possible. Nils Frahm returns to Kairos and that may be for the first time in quite a while. 'My Friend The Forest' is from his 'Tripping With Niels Frahm' album. If this composition is about a forest, it is one on a wind- and cloudless day. A day in which nothing passes in that forest, as if in a fairy tale where all has been put to sleep by an angry witch with Niels Frahm passing through it wondering why things are so quiet and telling about it later through his music. Slow but impressive 'My Friend The Forest' is. Funny detail, there is a mysterious sound that crops up a few time, as if the piano hammer mechanism was miked and there's one off note left in place.

Another, more spacious recorded piano enters, player faster surrounded by darker sounds. But, wait, it is Rémy van Kesteren, so this is not a piano, but the stripped version of it: a harp. With some effects between the instrument and the recording device. On 'Commonground', a part of his alternative soundtrack for the movie 'The Red Turtle' album, the darkness in that forest from Frahm comes forward. This is the story from the ugly, old witch's point of view. Vindictive, out for revenge and attentive to strike at the right moment. One forest, two sides.

I Am Oak's then new single 'Furrow', has found its way to these pages before, as has the album 'Odd Seeds'. The slow remaking of the songs by the band in the corona home of singer-songwriter Thijs Kuijken, can be called a success. 'Furrow' shows how a song can be stripped to the bone and easily take its own place in the world. A beautiful song does not need more than this when it comes down to it.

One note takes its place and high singing follows it. I immediately thought of Patrick Watson, but I never ran across him so far in Kairos. Listening to Will Samson though, I can imagine Watson making an appearance at some point in time. Samson's music is a little more experimental. Just listen to the rhythm effects he uses and the high voice that becomes a sampled tone. 'Oceans Are Wilder' as a title can't really be explained on the basis of this song. There's nothing wild here, perhaps excluding some of the estranging sounds used by Samson.

He has to move over already for a far darker mood. Music of the kind that fills me as a whole. There are long held notes on a few levels it seems, that together make a front. Like a wall in the mountains that in heroic movies need to be scaled as there's no other way forward and certainly not back. The composition 'Devils On The Back Posh'. whatever that means has found its way to Kairos before. I can't really remember the setting before but do have a faint recollection that it made the same impression on me. Dark, big and slightly disconcerting.

Without anything really changing a female voice starts singing in an Indian way. Notes are held even longer, a little bell is chimed, while behind the snake-charming voice also some strange noises are woven into the whole. The goal of this music is to hypnotise. I feel like I have to move my eyes along to the old-fashioned chest pocket watch and notice my head moving along to the waves of the music. A violin of sorts is playing a solo, before the singing returns. By this time I notice that Kairos has having an effect on my mind. I'm moving to its, slow, rhythm alright. This song comes from the album ‘Sacred Movement White Swan Yoga Masters Vol. 1’, and why not. By then I'm ready to believe anything.

A wild piano, mixed into the white swan movements, comes in, bringing me out of my Indian reveries. Man, this guy is going at it. I can't imagine it being a woman playing this music for some reason. I will check in a moment. This is so alienating after what I have heard before that it almost worries me. The notes are not so much extremely fast, more strongly played and repeated time and again, time and again, as if looped. I am listening to Jeroen Elfferich, a man, so my feeling was correct.

He is left behind for another high singing male voice accompanied by an acoustic guitar, while in the background my neighbour a few doors down is sawing planks for his new shed once again. It is Lyenn who returns to Kairos, but this time with a song from his previous album, 'Slow Healer'. Lyenn's music fits so well with this programme. Following Elfferich's 'The First Beat' he brings tranquillity, but also does a recording trick with his voice later in the song that creates the same effect as Elfferich's piano did, a dark repetition that seems to go on and on. A light weight version of Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks' sighing in Fleetwood Mac's big hit 'Big Love'.

A flute moves in and the mood changes although only slightly. This could be a part two to 'Fading', like what happens in Fleetwood Mac's, the Peter Green one, 'Oh, Well, Part 2'. It isn't though. This is an Indian composition played by the Dutch Eleonore Pameijer & Marcel Worms. The flute is accompanied by a piano, mainly playing dark notes and a few in the mid-range. The flute seems to aiming for the outer ranges of the universe. It's soaring against the laws of gravity itself. As it slowly fades away, it remains a question whether it succeeds to escape Earth.

Moonchy and Tobias take over and return for a second time to this Kairos. The synth in the background is held in place forever. The electric saw outside plays the part of the, whatever caused, the distortion on Jesus and Mary Chain's first album. It simply seems to belong here. The mood changes and it sounds like one of the many modern, female singers moves in, let's single out Kovacs, singing to that kind of modern slow, funky pop music. The slow pop is totally out of place with Kairos, yet it feels so good. The slow beat crawls into me and I find myself moving with the rhythm and the dark piano (Fender Rhodes?) sound, that underscores the slow beat. 'Until The Morning' by Thievery Corporation is the kind of song I need right now it seems.

Moonchy & Tobias return with the same song 'Dies Festus'. It is mentioned so many times in the tracklist to this Kairos that I can't but wonder what .No did to the song in the deep dungeons of his recording studio.

It is not long before he sends his attention back to Rémy van Kesteren though. His harp sounds out through my speakers. In the context of Kairos it sounds beautifully, although I will never play it for myself. It is not what I want to hear when I'm alone playing records, 99 out of 100 times that will involve a bunch of guitars. Listening now, I am totally in the right mood to let the music settle into my brain. The mysterious sounds hovering in the background and the slow harp chords are all I need right now.

This Kairos ends with another Dutch artist, Yukon Onoma. His music is totally Kairos, as if he composed his music with Kairos in mind. Just like we started, I am back on that beach. The waves crashing into the sand. It's warm, getting later in the day and here I am. Just doing nothing. The thought on a drink, long and cold, that is not too far away in time, on my mind. In the meantime I'm enjoying the sound and the emptiness in my head. I am one with 'They Might Sing For Us Some Day' and the thoughts in my mind's eye.

Reading it all back before publishing, the motto of this Kairos materialised alright.

Wo.

You can listen to this Kairos here:

https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_583467/

or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g

 

Playlist:

00:03 – 02:23  Sunmoonstar. феба (Phoebe). Album ‘Картины’ (Paintings). ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ Records (Pantheon). 

01:23 – 05:44  Richard Newall. Inner Peace (fragment). Album ‘Self Empowerment’ by Colin Bates & Ricard Newall. One Voice Music.

04:47 – 08:33  Moonchy & Tobias. Portus. Album ‘Moonchy & Tobias III’. Tiny Room Records.

08:21 – 14:30  Nils Frahm. My Friend The Forest. Album “Tripping with Nils Frahm”. Erased Tapes Records. 

14:19 – 18:22  Remy van Kesteren. Commonground. Album ‘An alternative soundtrack to the motion picture The Red Turtle’. Snowstar Records.

18:03 – 20:38  I Am Oak. Furrows. Album ‘Odd Seeds’. Snowstar Records.

20:24 – 24:04  Will Samson. Oceans are wilder. Album ‘Balance’. Karaoke Kalk 69CD.

23:31 – 27:38  Vanity Productions. Devils on the Back Posh. Album ‘But All Spiked’. Posh Isolation 242.

26:58 – 33:21  Stellamara. Zablejalo Mi Agance. Album ‘Sacred Movement White Swan Yoga Masters Vol. 1’. White Swan.

32:34 – 37:12  Jeroen Elfferich. The first beat (fragment). Album ‘Dutch Piano Rhythms’. Sel-released.

35:14 – 39:01  Lyenn. Fading. Album ‘Slow Healer’. V2 Records Benelux.

38:34 – 44:38  B. Ganesh Kumar. Alaap from Bhairavi Sindubhairavi. Album ‘Spanning the Globe’ by Eleonore Pameijer & Marcel Worms. FutureClassics 061. 

42:53 – 43 :06  Moonchy & Tobias. Dies Festus (fragment). Album ‘Moonchy & Tobias III’. Tiny Room Records.

43:06 – 43 :10  Moonchy & Tobias. Dies Festus (fragment). Album ‘Moonchy & Tobias III’. Tiny Room Records.

43:10 – 43 :25  Moonchy & Tobias. Dies Festus (fragment). Album ‘Moonchy & Tobias III’. Tiny Room Records.

43:13 – 45:34  Moonchy & Tobias. Dies Festus. Album ‘Moonchy & Tobias III’. Tiny Room Records.

45:32 – 49:29  Thievery Corporation. Until the morning. Album ‘The Richest Man in Babylon’. ESL Music ESL0060.

45:34 – 45:36  Moonchy & Tobias. Dies Festus (fragment). Album ‘Moonchy & Tobias III’. Tiny Room Records.

45:36 – 45:39  Moonchy & Tobias. Dies Festus (fragment). Album ‘Moonchy & Tobias III’. Tiny Room Records.

45:39 – 45:44  Moonchy & Tobias. Dies Festus (fragment). Album ‘Moonchy & Tobias III’. Tiny Room Records.

45:44 – 45:50  Moonchy & Tobias. Dies Festus (fragment). Album ‘Moonchy & Tobias III’. Tiny Room Records.

45:50 – 45:58  Moonchy & Tobias. Dies Festus (fragment). Album ‘Moonchy & Tobias III’. Tiny Room Records.

45:58 – 46:05  Moonchy & Tobias. Dies Festus (fragment). Album ‘Moonchy & Tobias III’. Tiny Room Records.

49:07 – 54:01  Remy van Kesteren. Waves. Album ‘An alternative soundtrack to the motion picture The Red Turtle’. Snowstar Records.

53:09 – 59:57  Yukon Onoma. They Might Sing For Us Some Day. Album ‘Until the Northern Light Takes Us’. Munich Records.