Kairos #134 , November 2021

Time to get a move on. It won't be long before I'm a year behind....

The familiar sound starts this month's Kairos and makes room for Brigid Mae Power's soft acoustic guitar and a warm organ. 'We Weren't Sure' is a modern folk song, where Power's voice hovers more over the track than take command of it. The ahh ahh ahh is followed by words, without changing the impact of her voice. Her highish voice determines what we hear. The sparse accompaniment of rhythm is embellished by the organ's notes that counter Brigid May Power's vocal melody. A banjo, I think, comes in as the lead instrument, playing a subdued solo.

The melodic is changed into rhythm. Dark, repetitive, artificial. Like a machine in a factory. Minutes or so it seems, into the composition Pink Floyd like sequences come in, mysterious and dark. A classical interlude comes next, although for a short while. The rhythm accompanies it next. Slow but significant changes. I'm listening to River Consoles' 'Hands'. Pink Floyd definitely is an influence but also something so much more darker than instrumental parts of 'The Wall'. Yes, darker than 'The Wall'. You've read right.

The little classical piece returns. A lonely flute is playing ahead of other members of the orchestra. The artificial rhythm returns as well, as do other pieces of 'Hands'. It all fits perfectly. Finally, the romantic music takes over. I have no clue as to what I'm hearing. A philharmonic orchestra that's for sure. Now, I know the famous sequence of the 'Bolero', but not what I'm hearing here. But, I cannot say that I'm not liking what I'm hearing.

The tranquillity is slowly being broken by snippets of Nick Cave's Litanies album with Nicolas Lens. It moves over so seamlessly that I'm not certain what I'm hearing. It could be the 'Bolero' with a female voice bursting through as if interference from another station. The music may have the same vibe, it is too modern in the end, is my conclusion. The music is also heavier, less fleeting to what I was hearing before. The touch of lightness does return, as if it belongs. This mix is extraordinary.

River Consoles moves back in with a second track, 'I Like'. It is like video art in a museum for modern art. Totally cut up, distorted, hard to make head or tails from. With lines, as if old-fashioned bad reception, running over the screen continuously. This is not music, it is art. What I'm missing are the visuals.

Violins and a piano come in, accompanying Laurie Anderson's voice reading a text. 'Our Street Is A Black River' is gone before I can form an opinion.

It is replaced by the serious and sonorous sound of House of Cosy Cushion's 'Duinpad'. Slow but steady as it goes, the music meanders around in my ears. Sacred as if in a church. I'm waiting for the choir to chime in, which it doesn't. The organ slowly but surely plays the same few notes, over time a central theme established itself. Then, are they voices, yes, but not like a choir, more as a sample in a Mellotron. Esther Rozenboom reads her poem over the music.

A touch of lightness enters at the end of the poem. I doubt whether I would call this light if I'd listened to the song as a stand alone experience, but here it certainly is. At the same time it flows beautifully from what has come before. It is a track from Rotterdam singer Ilse Hamelink, who made it to this blog late last year. 'Dive' is a beautiful song, dreamy in a way that the filtered light in a large forest can seem. All stripes of light in between the shadows. With the mystery that comes with fantasy behind it.

A choir-like song takes over. This is modern church music. A male and female voice meander around each other as if enraptured in prayer by song in a church. Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke's 'The Circulation of Shadows' is of a transcendent beauty, as if the two voices and the atmospherics surrounding them, could fall apart any second, leaving nothing but the illusion of the voice.

From, perceived praising, we move towards true praising of the Lord with Sergei Rachmaninov's 'Praise the Lord, O My Soul'. What puzzles me is the performing artists, The USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir. The Soviet Union and church music and praising the Lord? Weren't these iconoclast and church demolitioners? I'm totally surprised here. But then, why not? Someone at the time must have been proud of composers of the past. Just imagine hearing this in a cathedral. That would make quite an impact, alright. Also on me, the guitar loving (alternative) rocker. It's not my kind of music but beauty is beauty and certainly under the right circumstances.

Something more modern and certainly more profane takes over. The serenity remains though. A piano is at the basis of this composition but the chords are played wide apart with sparse notes every once in a while in between. An orchestra plays a few notes over and over in Ton Snijders' 'Valley Of Tears'. It must be the mood I'm in or brought into, as, again, this is beautiful music. In the second half Snijders' piano takes over. Slow played piano notes spread out into my mind like memories from long gone. Tiny little thoughts of other songs or classical pieces creep through my brain without me being able to pinpoint them. From long ago, perhaps even from before I truly listened to music but heard it anyway.

An electronic sound disturbs the tranquil playing. A long held or looped note repeats itself over and over. Esoteric sounds come in after a while. What to make of this? The mood totally fits with this Kairos but not with me. My peace of mind is severely disturbed by the industrial sounds, for lack of a better word, Jana Imert makes in her 'The Soft Bit'. I would not be surprised if a steam train would come rolling into the song or the sound of a factory from long ago would barge into my ears. They do not. Other sounds do. Some are made by an instrument, others are harder to determine and waves are crashing on the beach or something like it. 'The Soft Bit' is music when all is said and done but more a composite than a composition.

Something more electronic comes in. Synthesizers, high, buzzing notes, almost as if bees are emulated. Underneath a darker buzzing can be heard. 'Chiascuro' by Alessandro Cortini is played. The high and the deep do right to the term chiascuro, often associated with Leonardo da Vinci as one of the first painters to master the technique to the fullest.

A dark voice starts speaking and then speak-singing; beyond Leonard Cohen, as it were. Justin Sullivan returns to Kairos. More jazzy than the late, Canadian bard. The upright, fretless bass leads the music, accompanied by a piano playing high notes, again chiascuro. Sullivan obviously is influenced by Cohen but makes his style his own by making totally different music. The singing and the harmonies though are dead giveaways. I had to get into the mood of 'Sao Paolo' but it did not take any effort. The more melodic the song became, the more it took me with it.

Right up to the moment I'm in a dreamlike state. My fingers are moving over the board but almost sub-consciously. 'Dream 54' from Johanna Knutsson & Sebastian Mullaert's live performance in De Waalse Kerk. Filled with bird sounds, the duo's or .No's? It doesn't matter. Slowly the music progresses almost unnoticed.

This month's final song is by Astral Swans, Matthew Swann's moniker to release his songs. 'Cross Bone Style' from the album 'Astral Swann' is one of the songs where he shares his vocal duties with Julie Doiron, to great effect. Listening to the song for the first time in some time, I notice how laden the song is. Following this Kairos' main theme, I'd almost say this is modern church music as well. Just think a church and a choir. That aside, 'Cross Bone Style' again makes a huge impression on me. Time to pull the album out of my collection once again.

Wout de Natris

Here's the link to this Kairos:

https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_633242/

 

This is #134's Playlist:

00:00 – 00:16  Kairos Tune by Wino Penris.

00:08 – 04:18  Brigid Mae Power. We Weren’t Sure.
Album ‘Heaven on Fire (various artists). Fire Records. 

03:44 – 09:03  Rival Consoles. Hands. Album ‘Overflow’. Erased Tapes Records.

06:29 – 06:50  Claude Débussy. Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (fragment).
Album ‘Ravel: Bolero. Daphnis et Chloé Debussy: La Mer. Prélude
Herbert von Karajan. Deutsche Grammophon 427 250-2.

08:35 – 11:40  Claude Débussy. Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (partly).
Album ‘Ravel: Bolero. Daphnis et Chloé Debussy: La Mer. Prélude
Herbert von Karajan. Deutsche Grammophon 427 250-2.

09:03 – 09:34  Rival Consoles. Hands(fragment).
Album ‘Overflow’. Erased Tapes Records.

11:26 – 16:48  Nicholas Lens & Nick Cave. Litany of Divine Presence.
Album ‘L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S. Deutsche Grammophon 00289 483 9745.

16:33 – 16:53  Claude Débussy. Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (fragment).
Album ‘Ravel: Bolero. Daphnis et Chloé Debussy: La Mer. Prélude
Herbert von Karajan. Deutsche Grammophon 427 250-2.

16:48 – 18:57  Rival Consoles. I Like. Album ‘Overflow’. Erased Tapes Records.

18:38 – 19:58  Laurie Anderson. Our Street Is A Black River. Laurie Anderson & Konos Quartet. Album ‘Landslide’. Nonesuch Records. 

19:52 – 24:03  Richard Bolhuis. Duinpad. House of Cosy Cushions.
Album ‘Underground Bliss‘. Outcast Cats.

23:33 – 24:31  Poem by Esther Rozenboom. Voice and recording by Esther Rozenboom. Private recording.

23:03 – 24:42  Richard Bolhuis. Duinpad (fragment). House of Cosy Cushions.
Album ‘Underground Bliss‘. Outcast Cats.

24:34 – 27:44  Ilse Hamelink. Dive. Ischa. Album ‘Dive’. Tiny Room Records.

27:30 – 29:25  Lisa Gerrard & Pieter Bourke. The Circulation of Shadows.
Album ‘Duality’. 4AD – CAD 8004CD.

29:12 – 34:39  Sergei Rachmaninov. Praise the Lord, O My Soul.
Album ‘Vespers op.37’. The USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir, Valeri Polyansky (cond.). Melodiya Record Company SUCD 10-00105.

34:27 – 39:55  Ton Snijders. Valley of tears. Album ‘Solo (2)’. V2 Records.

39:36 – 46:29  Jana Irmert. The Soft Bit. Album ‘The Soft Bit’. Fabrique Records.

45:58 – 49:46  Alessandro Cortini. Chiaroscuro (partly).
Album ‘SCURO CHIARO’. Mute. 

49:07 – 53:45  Justin Sullivan. Sao Paulo. Album ‘Surrounded’. V2 Records.

53:29 – 57:10  Johanna Knutsson & Sebastian Mullaert. Dream 54 (fade out).
Album ‘In Dreams – Live At De Waalse Kerk 2019’. Circle of Live/Modern Matters.

56:27 – 59:57  Matthew Swann. Cross Bones Style. Astral Swans.
Album ‘Astral Swans’. Tiny Room Records.