Kairos # 136, 6 January 2022

Oh, dear, it has come to pass. I'm one year behind. So I faced a fundamental choice. You find my decision here as if it is 2022.

The "station call" starts and a sole piano starts playing after a few seconds, followed by a classical voice. Too high to my taste. It turns out to be a Freddy Mercury composition but before I found out, I had a thought ABBA? But no, this is an album in which Freddy Mercury gets a classical treatment. Not so strange, remember 'Barcelona'? I do not recognise 'You Took My Breath Away' from any Queen album. This could be explained by the fact I do not have them all, the fact that I do not play them often and do not own any solo albums. I always liked Queen's singles better than its albums, 'A Night At The Opera' excepted as literally the only one.

A guitar with quite some reverb on it takes over and a male voice starts singing. Faintly familiar, modern. like many singer-songwriters these days. A hint of dance in the singer-songwriter format. It's Dutch singer-songwriter Emil Landman. Someone I'm not a fan of and 'Rise And Fall' underscores this. Not that it is a bad song. Perhaps even far from. It's just that his way of singing and the structure of the song do not agree with me. Starting all the way up in the tree with Ed Sheeran down to many presenting songs like his. This is not my thing.

Next up, is more esoteric. Music as if made in an underwater world. Music like bubbles rising up to the surface, seen from a human point of view of course. How would a fish call the spot where water turns into air, had it has words? The speed of "the bubble" rises, resulting in them becoming unrecognisable as such. The sound becomes a wave, ever continuing. Highland Spokesman is the artist, I'm listening to 'Sound 03 three'. At some point nothing happens, except for that pulse that is kept up. Listen more closely and you will find slow changes or an extra sound hidden in that pulse. Intriguing in a way it certainly is. Would I ever listen to it outside of this context? The question is more: where would I ever encounter music like this? I have no clue, for the simple reason I did not know it existed.

A harp comes in and I could have guessed it to be Remy van Kesteren's, as he has become a favourite of Kairos over the past months. Playing slow notes, accented by a deeper register. Which I take to be a harp as well, but I'm not certain. I am trying to get into the composition but notice I'm not succeeding. Van Kesteren is slowly making a name for himself. I can look into the future from January 2022 after all. I can imagine this to be a good thing. For me there's no other option but to conclude 'Amanuel' is not for me.

Next up is an Eastern sound of a tabla or some such Indian percussive instrument. The organ playing the hint of a melody is far removed from India. The singing that starts after about one minute certainly is. 'Bitinélis' the song is called by someone or a band called Merope. The singing is not fully natural. It has been treated with a kind of effect, almost as if sliced and glued back together. The organ and human-like singing effects in the background gives 'Bitinélis' a ghost like effect. As if a whole choir from the netherworld is trying to contribute to the song, almost succeeding. Creeping through the cracks of the studio but getting stuck. Fully hybrid between west and east this song is but also very, very weird and almost disturbing. I can't make heads or tails here.

With 'The Heron' I have to pay attention I notice. Some atmospheric sounds come out of my speakers, a hint of a melody and it's all over already as a choir sings over the strange sound that remains. This is church music of the modern kind, for half a minute.

Next up is a female voice with a lot of echo on it. Hardly any music at first. First, voices weaving in and out of each other but quite possibly all of the same singer. Hints of Kate Bush at the time of 'Cloudbusting' and one of the biggest hits of 2022, yes!, 'Running Up That Hill'. It is Marta del Grandi's 'Amethyst'. This is by comparison the first song on this Kairos after Emil Landman. I had never heard of Del Grandi before but I can imagine listening to her music, become fascinated and enjoying it to.

A violin comes in in a screeching kind of way, not trying to please immediately, although the music around it is. Nick Cave? I thought. No this voice is not deep enough. It turns out it is 'L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S.'. The work of Cave with composer Nicholas Lens returns to Kairos. This is more Leonard Cohen without Cohen I'd venture. Especially when the female voice blends with Cave's, fully Leonard Cohen style. This song, 'Litany Of Godly Love' holds an element of beauty that is not hard to discern once I start listening. The ending is quite abrupt though.

More violins enter with more instruments suggesting an orchestra venturing into a modern composistion. Including an angelic choir holding a long note and then another. 'Kali Malone Fantas For Two Organs' is an interesting title where I do not hear a single organ so far. Catarina Barbieri is also an unknown name to me. What to make of it? This is experimental alright. Sounds and not necessarily connected notes from different instruments fly in and out.

Sorry, folks, it may be there's a long composition going on. My guess is yes. This does sort of sound the same. Perhaps a bit more structured from what happened before. The tracklist has a hole of about 12 minutes and Shazam has no clue here. There are organs by now, perhaps two, so my guess is we are listening to Barbieri right now and perhaps not before. The question remains, is this music? Yes, because there are clear notes, a certain pattern and an, albeit slow, rhythm. That does not make it The Beatles though, to mention what, when all is said and done, probably remains my favourite band. Working from melody in the extreme. Let me conclude that 'Kali Malone Fantas For Two Organs' is far too long for me.

Next up is a fragment form Ilsha's or Ilse Hamelink's 'Black Hand'. Her mini album still agrees quite well with me and is played with a certain regularity. At some point it will go from the stash to the, for cds and LPs much feared, cupboard. Once in, it is hard to come out. The fragment is almost unrecognisable, it's gone so fast.

A piano takes over. It is Annelie with the composition 'Of'. It is of the kind recorded in a way that it is as if another instrument hides in between the piano notes. Ghost notes in between the reverb of the piano's body. 'Of' is a song that meanders and provides beauty to its listeners.

Another fragment of the 'Black Hand' comes by. For the love of me, I simply do not recognise it as such. What's done to it?

Other music sets in already. A sister of Catarina Barbieri without two organs? Again there's a hint of music but far more the effect of tones and atmospherics. Emanuelle Errante's 'Inner' comes by. An acoustic guitar is played as if someone is studying chords and most likely is a virtuoso. There's no consistency though. It is as if someone took an axe to the tape and then got all the pieces back together in a random way while the background sounds and atmospherics continue in a never stopping loop. A broken guitar that can still be played.

At some point Icelandic composer Ólafur Björn Ólafsson comes in with a harp like sound. By comparison everything becomes music but also 'White Mountain' or 'Ulfur' in Icelands is not for me. To be ahead of Wino, who creates these beautiful Kairosses, "yes, I've had a hard time".

Wout de Natris

Here's the link to this Kairos:

https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_642785/

This is the playlist:

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

00:04 – 03:57  Freddie Mercury. You Take My Breath Away. Jodie Devos & Nicolas Krüger.
Album ‘And Love Said‘. Alpha Classics.

03:37 – 06:33  Emil Landman. Rise And Fall. EP ‘Brooklyn Sessions’. V2 Benelux.

06:17 – 12:33  Highland Spokesman. Sounds 03 three (partly).
Album ‘Sounds’. ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ Records (Pantheon).

11:58 – 17:54  Remy van Kesteren. Amanuel.
EP ‘Places I May Have Visited, People I May Have Met’. Snowstar Records.

17:21 – 23:47  Merope. Bitinélis. Album ‘Salos’. Stroom (2)/Granvat.

23:22 – 24:28  Faten Kanaan. The heron. Album ‘A Mythology of Circles’. Fire records.

24:27 – 25:00  Guido Morini. Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis part 1.
Album ‘Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis’. Cypres Records CYP 1656.

24:28 – 24:31  Faten Kanaan. The heron (fragment).
Album ‘A Mythology of Circles’. Fire records.

24:35 – 24:38  Faten Kanaan. The heron (fragment, slightly adapted by Wino Penris).
Album ‘A Mythology of Circles’. Fire records.

24:44 – 24:48  Faten Kanaan. The heron (fragment, slightly adapted by Wino Penris).
Album ‘A Mythology of Circles’. Fire records.

24:54 – 28:47  Marta del Grandi. Amethyst. Album ‘Until We Fossilize’.

28:19 – 29:12  Ilse Hamelink. Black Hands (fragment). Ilsha.
Album ‘Dive’. Tiny Room Records.

28:47 – 33:32  Nicholas Lens/Nick Cave. Litany Of Godly Love.
Album ‘L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S.’. Deutsche Grammophon 00289 483 9745.Sunmoonstar tr 7

33:12 – 37:02  Caterina Barbieri. Kali Malone Fantas For Two Organs.
Album ‘Fantas Variations’. Editions Mego EMEGO279

46:28 – 47:22  Ilse Hamelink. Black Hands (fragment). Ilsha.
Album ‘Dive’. Tiny Room Records.

47:16 – 50:14  Annelie. Of. Album ‘After Midnight’. Sony Music Entertainment/DGR.

49:48 – 56:08  Emanuelle Errante. Inner (partly).
Album: Time Elapsing Handheld. Karaoke Kalk CD 75.

49:54 – 50:47  Ilse Hamelink. Black Hands (fragment). Ilsha.
Album ‘Dive’. Tiny Room Records.

55:50 – 59:57  Ólafur Björn Ólafsson / Ulfur. White Mountain.
Album ‘White Mountain’. Western Vinyl.