 AURAH
Etherea Borealis
[Aurah, www.aurah.com]
Coming out of mountainous Switzerland, Judith Martin and Marc Dold come
straight out of ambient, chill-out territory. Their band Aurah steps softly
on the leaves of hundreds of bands that came before and leads the way for
those that will follow suit. This is where the problem begins. If you
think this music sound derivative, that's only because it is. The only way
it's leading something is as fodder on AM radio, which is not where I'd
expect to hear music that is taking risks. Honestly, I don't care if the
band admits "We told ourselves, "Let's forget everything we learned about
traditional song-writing, about catchy song forms, hooks, 3 min. 30 second
time limits, etc" and we created from intuition and heart. Without being
fully aware of it at first, it just happened. The music wrote itself. Yes,
we still had to put it all together, but it was effortless. Just like the
difference between a task you feel you have to perform and something you
love to do. Out of this came our eclectic CD entitled Songs of the
Alchemist. Some songs were ethnic and organic, while some were instrumental
and electronic. Some had vocals but no lyrics. Some were reminiscent of a
film-score." Let me repeat that for you, in case you fell asleep. THE
MUSIC WROTE ITSELF!! Excuse me for jumping in, but no great music has ever
just written itself. Even music made with the help of laptops, sequencers
and no-input mixing boards expects a certain level of human interaction. In
fact, the more human interaction, the more unique the music will become.
Let me rephrase this in a few words. Sure Judith Martin has a lovely set of
vocal chords, but that's about it. She's mining the Liz Fraser territory
but that's about it. This is mood music or something to doze off to.
Keyboards, synths and arrangements are so drearily presented, I end up
having just about enough of the sameness 15 minutes into the disc [and it
clocks in at 65 minutes!!]. If you get wet hearing Sarah McLachlan on the
radio and think she's the best thing since sliced bread, then Aurah will fit
your musical territory just fine. However, If you want to step beyond
clichĂŠs, give this disc a pass.
- Tom Sekowski
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RECENZJE
+ Tatsuya Yoshida/ Piotr Zabrodzki - Karakany
+ Pharaoh Overload - Live in Suomi Finland
+ Andromelos - Andromelos
+ Fresh Maggots - Fresh Maggots
+ Unfolding - Freak Out Party: How to Blow Your Mind
+ Susan Christie - Paint a Lady
+ Jan Jelinek - Kosmischer Pitch
+ Carl Craig - The Album Formerly known As ...
+ Funkstörung - Appendix
+ Skinny Puppy - Mythmaker
+ Boogy Bytes Vol.3 - Mixer By Modeselektor
+ Adult. - Why Bother?
+ Stewart Walker - Concentricity
+ Sleep Well - Chapter III
+ Anthony Rother - Moderntronic
+ 5YR: Five Years Of Regularity - Mixed By Jaumetic
+ Dr. J present 1 Love - Neophilia
+ LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
+ International Deejay Gigolos 10 - Presented By DJ Hell
+ The Field - From Here We Go Sublime
+ Electronicat - Chez Toi
+ Dirty Doering - Saubermann
+ Matthew Dear - Deserter
+ Computer Incarnations For World Peace
- - - - - - - - -
+ HAL RAMMEL - Like Water Tightly Wound
+ MARTYN BATES - Your Jewled Footsteps
+ TERMINAL SOUND SYSTEM - Compressor
+ ROBERTO OPALIO - The Last Night of the Angel of Glass, Vol. I & II
+ THE STRANGLERS - Anthology
+ DAX PIERSON / ROBERT HORTON - Pablo Feldman Sun Riley
+ KOMMANDO RAUMSCHIFF ZITRONE - First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
+ ZU & NOBUKAZU TAKEMURA - Identifications with the Enemy, A Key to the Underworld
+ YELLOW 6 - Painted Sky
+ CHRIS WATSON / BJ NILSEN - Storm
+ FENNESZ - Endless Summer
+ NINE HORSES - Money For All
+ VARIOUS ARTISTS - HEAVYBreathing - The Sounds of Sex - Vol. 3 - Stop It! - HEAVYBreathing - The Sounds of Sex - Vol. 4 - Touch Me!
+ WADADA LEO SMITH - GÜNTER BABY SOMMER - Wisdom in Time
+ KATHY DIAMOND - Miss Diamond To You
+ FRED LONBERG-HOLM TRIO - Terminal Valentine
+ JASPER LEYLAND - Fieldstone
+ KILO - Kilo / POLE - Steingarten / TELESEEN - War / HECKER - Recordings for Rephlex
>> AURAH - Etherea Borealis
+ THE STYLE COUNCIL - Live at the Full House Rock Show DVD / BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE - Live E=MC2 DVD
+ DANIEL MENCHE - Animality
+ ANDREA CENTAZZO MITTELEUROPA ORCHESTRA - The Complete Recordings 1980 - 1981 - The Complete Recordings 1982 - 1983
+ DAVID TOOP - Sound Body
+ ASTRO & SUZUKI JUNZO - Cosmic Blues Experience / SUZUKI JUNZO - November.10.2001
+ DOCTOR BOB - Dark Times
+ THE BAMBOOS - Rawville
+ VARIOUS ARTISTS - Strictly Drum and Bass - The Roots of Sly and Robbie / VARIOUS ARTISTS - The Historic Roots of Ska
+ FRED ANDERSON & HAMID DRAKE - From the River to the Ocean
+ TG MAUSS - Gravity Will Keep Us All Together
+ POEM ROCKET - Invasion!
+ JENNIFER GENTLE - A New Astronomy
+ MIRA CALIX - Eyes Set Against the Sun / !!! - Myth Takes / LONDON SINFONIETTA - Warp Works & Twentieth Century Masters
+ ISRAEL QUELLET - Oppressum
+ EINSTUERZENDE NEUBAUTEN - Palast Der Republik DVD
+ VARIOUS ARTISTS - Maiden Voyage / VARIOUS ARTISTS - Protest - Feet / ASSORTED PERFORMERS - Ghos Busters III / VARIOUS ARTISTS - The Best of Polish Jazz 2005
+ SOFTWAR - Softwar
+ THE ETERNALS - Heavy International
- - - - - - - - -
WYWIADY / RELACJE
+ Writing rhythms is easy - rozmowa z Stewart'em Walker'em
+ Regularity is the secret - wywiad z Jaumetic'em [Regular label]
+ Szybsze bicie serca - rozmowa z Patrycją Hefczyńską aka DJ Patrisią [Husky]
+ My fire is burning - wywiad z Hell'em [Gigolo Records]
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