Alex Cline: The Lamp And The Star

Posted By : Rommeo | Date : 05 Aug 2009 04:54:32 | Comments : 2 |

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Percussionist Alex Cline's first album as a composer demonstrates, right out of the gate, the man's knack for conjuringtimeless, elemental music. Minimal ambience opens most tracks, with Cline's love of Asian percussion evident via gongs and Tibetan singing bowls. In "Emerald Light", these bowls create a meditatively soothing yet wholly alien radio signal,paving the way for Aina Kemanis's hauntingly clear "la la" vocals which entwine seamlessly with the brooding strings of Jeff Gauthier's violin. Eric Von Essen's sadly bowed bass on "Accepting the Chalice" speaks of the deep connection between the sorrows of the universe and free jazz. Cline's connection to states of higher consciousness through music is clear with titles like "Altar Stone" and in this way his compositions fuse Western instruments and tonalities with Eastern meditation, the balance of silence and sound, and an elegiacsense of reverence. The way Kemanis's vocals condense organically out of the nothingness in "Altar Stone", or the way thundering drum rolls give way to falling string showers in "Eminence" betrays Cline's profound grasp of music's connection to the natural world. The similar and essential SPARKS FLY UPWARD and THE CONSTANT FLAME followed this album.

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EAC LOG

Tracks:

A Blue Robe In The Distance
Eminence
Emerald Light
Altar Stone
Accepting The Chalice

Aina Kemanis: voice
Jeff Gauthier: violin, viola, voice
Hank Roberts: cello, voice
Wayne Peet: piano, organ
Eric von Essen: bass
Alex Cline: percussion, voice
Nels Cline: voice
Susan Rawcliffe: didjeridu