Carpe Carmina: carmina charm #7

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.

XIV. I Wish It Could Be Different

Once languorous, vividly opulent melodic tales unfold, once balmy, sensitive vocal bliss heralds the atmospheric musical finery that is yet to come, the listener of Silent Sleep's serene and smoothly symphonious magical music-making is irrevocably entranced. It's with alluring, vibrantly shining consonance that a rich instrumental ensemble of sweeping piano melodies, emotionally longing violin accompaniment, dulcet flute accents and ambient choir charm floats, beats with a perky, buoyant tonal pulse, whilst singer/songwriter Chris McIntosh, who breathed live into this ever evolving, multifarious music project in 2010 and since then has released several EPs as well as one album, relying (almost) solely on his silken voice and dynamic instrumental craft at that time, moulds the adamant, modest acoustic core of the jubilant compositional complexity that is called forth by Silent Sleep at the present. McIntosh' second album 'Stay The Night, Stay the Morning Too' - due in 2015 - is prepped to meet the musical promise of following equally placid, briskly swinging musical marks previous releases have left ... and for the time being its scenic, rhythmically bracing single 'I Wish It Could Be Different' already leads the way ...

Musically peaceful yet breezily blossoming in rhythm, 'I Wish It Could Be Different' enchants with heart-rending melancholia and expressive depth, moreover captures the audience's imagination, kindles its genuine affection for poignantly portrayed acoustic tales at three levels: lyrically drawn into a sweet soon cloudy narrative, melodically carried away by a mellifluous, appolonian and refreshingly spirited instrumental stream and spellbound by a visually sumptous and charmingly imaginative music video (video animation by Jason Paul Wood), the listener - in closing - finds himself deeply moved by and smitten with the gorgeous, hauntingly harmonious compositional staging of the song itself. Concurrently, Chris McIntosh' soothing, wistful voice does not only provide a powerful constant throughout but also prevails as an applaudable, warmly euphonious encore.

Reach out & listen to Silent Sleep on ...

.. twitter ...
.. facebook ...
.. the artist's official website ...
.. soundcloud ...
.. bandcamp ...

... eventually purchase Silent Sleep's music here.

XV. Mind, Body And Soul

Liverpool's flourishing local music scene has seen the rise of this gracefully sentimental, musically glowing soul-pop outfit in 2013, and ever since Little Grace have lain out their mesmerizing blend of silky, vivifying compositonal blessing and stunning, blithe vocal harmonies, artfully embodied by their eponymous debut EP in early 2014, the energetic quintet is a qualified representative of beat-driven yet emotive, inspiring and invitingly narrational musicianship.

Drawing on a blissful, ardently gleaming melodic layout for 'Mind, Body And Soul' the five artists strike a chord with brisk contempary music loving listeners once more: it's when soulful vocal yearning and electrifying, gently rousing instrumentals fuse, it's when subtle, elusively layered electronic vibes flutter serenely, it's when involving romantic musings arise, that velvety and perky nonchalant pop pomp shows, that Little Grace's fine and perceptive sense of composing manifests strikingly.

Reach out & listen to Little Grace on ...

.. twitter ...
.. facebook ...
.. soundcloud ...
.. bandcamp ...

.. you can purchase Little Grace's eponymous debut EP he re, as well as 'Mind, Body And Soul' here.

... and yet another treat for your ears: Charm Offensive's dreamily fluent still frisky and vivacious remix of 'Mind, Body And Soul'. Enjoy!