1. Go in a Good Way to a Better Place 2. I Am the Dead 3. Doorway to the Sun 4. Occultum Lapidem 5. Harbour of the Nade 6. Taksim 7. Sidi Bou Said 8. Virginal Co-Ordinates 9. Innocent Eye, Crystal See 10. Marriage of Days
Customer Reviews of This Album/CD
eyvind kang creation Submitted on: 2008-08-13
To be honest I havn't given this one enough of a listen, as I didn't realy get the urge to play it repeatedly. I don't want to put it down as I believe this guys creations are all musicaly exceptional, but unfortunately this album just didn't excite me as much as some other stuff I have heard! There is probably a whole heap of Eyvind Kang fans out there just cursing at me for this review !! don't let me put you off though, give it a listen. I know that I couldn't create anything even half as good as this album, I might be too critical from hearing too mutch great music....P.S. I have seen this guy play live and he left me praising his performance as I picked my jaw up off the ground!
WAOOOUUUHH... Submitted on: 2008-04-06
A very good product...
That's terrible.
Eyvind Kang with Mike Patton and others... WAOUH.
I love it.
Zen...
Thanks.
=)
it turned out to be rather good, after all Submitted on: 2007-01-23
i had problems with the post office when i ordered this initially, but Amazon straightened everything out. their customer service team really came through. i am well aware this is not a review of the album (yet), but it does inform potential buyers that the customer service here is outstanding. anyway, as for the cd: there are AT LEAST 3 amazing tracks on this disc (not just Patton songs), making the overall purchase VERY worthwhile. for Patton fans, the closest comparison is the Kaada/Patton Romances CD in the way that it has some actual lyrics, but mostly sounds. the orchestration on this is stunning on most tracks. on track 10, i cannot believe the drums, it sounds like a programmed beat, not a live orchestra. i obviously don't have a degree in this subject, but i can tell you that it's moving, uplifting, and worldly sounding. really diverse, yet good flow. #7,9, and 10 are my favorites. #7 reminds me of these crazy old filmstrips you'd watch in music class in elementary school. actually it sounds like a cut directly from the movie Masque of the Red Death with Vincent Price. oddly on this same disc, track 9 could be played at a wedding and it'd fit right in. once #9 or 10's in your head, it's stuck- they're good ones. hope this review was helpful.
a bit sterile Submitted on: 2005-06-03
I bought this CD because of the extremely positive reviews I had read on this page, but, after listening to it a few times, I thought I needed to provide some counterpoint. I held many expectations for this album upon reading the reviews, few of which were realized.
I don't know why one reviewer would have listed all those genres and composers, insinuating that Virginal Co Ordinates is some sort of culmination of 500 years of music. It's not. It's not a bad album, but it's no milestone. If you're expecting "Scottish folk and Villa-Lobos and Icelandic post-rock all on the same album," you'll be disappointed.
I'll take you through "Doorway to the Sun," and you can decide for yourself:
-starts off, we're at 3:30 into it, and there's been some pizzicato noodling. a little dissonance. some of pink floyd's "echoes" sound effects in the background, seems like. yeah, this has been going on for a while.
-alright, it's building, a little. we've got some percussion now. we're 7 minutes into it. it's got a good vibe to it, but it feels like the music that would play during a video montage of me making a toothpick structure.
-alright, 9:30. the music has really layered itself to a point of cohesiveness, and that's gratifying. it took a very long time to do so, though, and the song could have equally as effectively started right here. it hasn't been "bending genres" for these past nine minutes, after all, it's been building up within the confines of one, one genre, one tempo, one key.
-now we're at 14:00, and mike patton has been chanting along. the vocals are another instrument, which is always refreshing, especially when patton does it, but is something going to happen? i could fall asleep to this music, but should i be actively listening to it?
-ever play medal of honor, or whatever that wwII videogame is with the trumpet in the beginning? man, this whole album reminds me of that.
-hey, the music is deconstructing itself exactly the way it built up, but backwards.
-now it's over.
So, as you can see, I did not just have a life-altering experience. It's good music to put on while you're sitting in a cubicle or reading an intense book, but otherwise it gets a bit dry, emotionless, repetitive, and predictable.
What if . . . Submitted on: 2005-05-10
What if the entire history of Western Christian mysticism, William Blake, plainsong, Tantum Ergo, polyphony, Renaissance dance, Baroque, German Romanticism, Gamelan, South Indian classical, Japanese folk song, Icelandic chill-out, Olivier Messiaen, Alva Noto, microtonalism, Samuel Barber, Daniel Lanois without the cheese, Native American, Appalachian, Scottish folk, North African Berber, Nu-pop, ambient drone, Minimalism, Industrial, beat poetry, cosmic consciousness, post-rock, Toronto Indie Apocalypse, Van Dyke Parks, chamber jazz, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Gustav Holst, The Beach Boys, Sun Ra, Eric Satie, Heitor Villa Lobos, Phillip Glass, and New Music sensibilities were all to be assimilated, processed, deconstructed, and retrieved in one enormous, death-defyingly gorgeous, show-stoppingly virtuosic yet eminently listenable and instantly accessible disc? That's a pitiful attempt to capture in words what is going on in this absolutely astounding album, certainly a landmark, a watershed in the history of recorded music.
Just the shear scope of the soundscape boggles the mind. A basic six-piece unit (Michael White, violin; Mike Patton, voice, electronics; Tim Young, electric guitar; Tucker Martine, live sound processing; Evan Schiller sound movements; and Evyind Kang, violin and composer) is augmented by a sixteen-piece orchestra featuring woodwinds, brass, strings, acoustic and electric guitar, keyboards, accordion, percussion, and drums. Kang has written some absolutely mesmeric compositions featuring all of the styles noted in the first paragraph, which are then arranged and played in a most compelling and beguiling manner. Certainly the inclusion of such noted sound manipulators as Patton, Schiller, and Martine contribute greatly to the sweep and grandeur of the musical palette. But perhaps the most salient fact about this disc is that it is a live recording, albeit, thankfully, with none of the annoying audience interruptions that all too frequently accompany such undertakings.
The centerpiece is the 19:23 "Doorway to the Sun," which must be heard to be believed (or vice versa). Here composer Kang pulls out all the stops, creating a map of the musical universe that encompasses the farthest reaches of Ultima Thule, maelstroms, blasted heaths, ocean bottoms, planetary cycles, black holes, desert sunsets, double helixes, equinoxal precessions, 80-foot Cortez Reef, Uluru, Rapa Nui, Chichen Itza, and all points in between. The chantlike vocals coming in at about 10:20, courtesy of the inimitable Mike Patton, largely unintelligible, yet strangely understandable, s(h)immer with repeated words/phrases like "seven, seven, seven key [____]" "interplanetary [____]" "astral intelligence gave them," "liberation receive them," "heavenly firmament kiss it," "multiplicity dissolvent" "spirit of the innocents save them"--or similar utterances. And even though they make no rational sense, they resonate with the deepest racial memories and human sentiments summed up by the world's greatest myths and religious stories. Sound like New Age blather? Maybe, but I don't think so.
The rest is nearly as remarkable, if not quite as ambitious and far reaching. I am especially taken with the title cut, impossible dense yet unfolding with crystal clarity, sonically startling with its ominous percussive underpinnings, white noise wash, and massive brass assault yet featuring the most remarkable sound imaging where even single string instruments and belllike nuances ring out from the speakers. Indeed, from a production standpoint alone, this disc deserves highest praises. Other favorites include "Sidi Bou Said," with its faux East Indian textures, oriental oboe, and spot-on ensemble voicings, and "Innocent Eye, Crystal See," a simple melodic statement that just keeps unfolding with a magical assortment of string, percussive, and wind voicings until it becomes, finally, an incredibly rich sound tapestry. Not surprisingly, my favorite numbers are the three longest, where Kang and the players get to display the full monty of their instrumental and vocal glory.
Eyvind Kang, someone always worth listening to, has here produced not only his masterpiece, but in my humble opinion, the greatest disc of the young millennium, music that sets the bar so impossibly high that I don't see it being topped anytime soon.
eyvind kang creation
WAOOOUUUHH...