carmina charm #5

Do you know that our soul is composed of harmony? 

- Leonardo DaVinci

It's harmony that your soul and mind embraces again when listening to music. As sound surrounds you, only some melodies firmly resonate with you, get an immediate emotional response - whilst their approach is a smooth and soft one, whilst they slowly, carefully but steadily cling to you, these melodies eventually grab you with an intensity and force that overwhelms, that fully absorbs and stirs. It's these very melodies that are in chime with your mind and soul, it's music that leaves an imprint on your being and mesmerizes ... music that charms. 

IX. We All Need Love

Liverpool based singers/songwriters Stephen Langstaff and Esco Williams both spellbind their audiences with emotive, evocative songwriting and skilful, soulful music-making: whilst Langstaff's musicianship depends on balmy and warm vocalism, whilst his songs enchant with a characteristically sensitive, modest staging, it's Williams' rich and velvet vocal range that grips with glowing and melancholic exuberance, it's his energetic presence on stage that radiates with irresistibly infectious intensity - together these two gifted vocalists make magical music making happen by launching a harmonious, sweeping and dynamically expansive compositional vortex of absorbing and empyrean allure ... 

Album review: Analogue Wave - Casimir. Venturous virtuosi in the field of enigmatic, electrifying and experimental electronic music

It's a grave, incisive, yet again breezy and effervescent melodic concurrence of bluesy ambience and energetic ecletic electronic layers, an intense interplay between provocative, conflicting stimulus and thrilling force of attraction: dreamy and atmospheric melodies, electrifying and elusive sound effects coalesce, are distinctively marked by both fierily and smoothly longing, expressive and dark vocalism, eventually expand and explore a new field in sound .... it's (A)n.(a)l.(o)g.(ue) W.(a)v.(e). 

The new guys in town ...

There is a fine line between paying tribute to a 'golden' music era, drawing from music history and erring on the side of caution by mimicing styles of music, proven to be auspicious, accessible ones - every self-professed and/or highly-praised artist learns that either in the early years of his musicianship or in the course of his musical ambition. The path of composing, of compositonal approach each musician chooses to follow, is determined by his self-proclaimed aspiration, to either fit the mould, to conform or to stand out by dictating the terms of music-making on his own, by veturing and embracing an eventful and surprising musical journey. There lies a stony road ahead for those musicians trying to settle for an original, refreshing sound, for those musicians trying to find their own sound in the first place. A lot is at stake, dreams, visions, inspiriation, reception, the haunt is a worthwhile, rewarding one nonetheless, as it is an undeniably laudable, incentive endeavour to diverge from, to alter the norm, the music alpha that is homophone, omnipresent indie rock, satiating due its bleak abundance, sometimes still surprisingly keen, stimulant and reverberative in leadership. 

Video Spotlight: Luke Cusato - Great Beyond. A heartfelt, haunting and museful ballad

'We're in the car with love and pain' ... (footage
by Dave Turley Photography) 

Impressions, of people, of your enviroment pass you by. A brief glance, you are pushed forward, you push forward. Eager to arrive, to feel, to notice, truthfully and thoroughly. Sceneries commute. Swiftly. You take a deep breath and focus. You understand, realize what matters, people, near and dear to you. You see your destination ahead, notice what surrounds you, picture what is yet to come. Fractions of what is, what has been, what might be, everything coalesces, sweeps away. Shades of darkness and light, fast pace, you roam, search and hope. You reach out, imagine, wish to come to a stand. Together. Breathing out, you step into the light, into the unknown. Silence. Looming motion. You feel an undescribable longing inside, hear a gentle voice full of promise whisper: And we fight for the great beyond, and we fight for the great beyond. And we don't hold back and we can't hold on ... - you take a step forward, pause, ponder, move ...

Album review: TiTORS iNSiGNiA - Get Yourself A Name ... and TiTORS iNSiGNiA's is pronounced confident, fiercely clashing yet charmingly soulful rock'n'roll

'The reign of rock'n'roll on my radio' has subsided with years gone by, faces its impending doom as an endless seemingly stream of pseudo-creative, quasi-quaint, feigned refreshing electronic abundance, pop glitter and shallowness emerges, seizes the scepter of radio airplay. This is no bitter, wrongful lament, it's facing and coping with reality. People search for distraction and amusement in songs - and one can't blame them - are hooked on sweeping, glowing melodies and catchy lyrics, on cheerful and virulent, energetic compositional light-weight. It's not a matter of 'growing-on' and 'growing-fond-of' music anymore, it's instant bond or rejection; tonal attractivity rises from vivid and dynamic music blends - and there are indeed some inspiringly bracing and keen synergies of ecletic musical genres - but what has happened to the pure, unaltered and rousing kind, specifically to the infectious and powerful glory of confident and commanding, of pushy, sassy and demanding rock swagger?