Secret Voices, a project of producer Tim Motzer along with Italian electronics guru Enrico Marani, has a very eclectic and original new release, No Time For Silence.
When a album is truly original, it’s often hard to fit it into a set category or niche. This is certainly the case with No Time For Silence. The label, 1k Recordings, describes the CD as “Epic compositions, potent improvisations, and amazing wordplay from a world collective of poets, artists, and musicians.” The music moves from ambient to downtempo to cinematic, all in the first track, with a dash of David Lynch and Eno Ambient 4 weirdness thrown in, for good measure.
The CD is very atmospheric and experimental, and frequently has an improvisational feel. Motzer uses a wide range of instruments and collaborators, in addition to synths, guitars, loops and effects. Many of the tracks include environmental sound effects, such as the sounds of summer crickets. Other musicians include Jeremy Carlstedt on drumkit, Gloria Justen on violin, Barry Meehan on bass and loops, Enrico Marani on electronics, and Elliott Levin on saxophones, flutes, and voice.
Many of the tracks create dark cinematic backdrops for spoken poetry in several languages, delivered by Ursula Rucker, Rich Medina, Elliott Levin, Kalaf Angelo, and Adriano Englebrech. While much of the album is laid-back ambient music, it’s not going to lull you to sleep. The tracks all have a bit of an uneasy or mysterious feel to them, and the fact that the spoken poetry is often difficult to make out just adds to this feeling.
You definitely won’t fall asleep during To Be Perfectly?.Frank, Deja Vu Dued All Over Again, or Displaced By The Blink Of A Third Eye. These tracks feature Elliot Levin’s ranting beat poetry and avant-jazz sax riffs, over drones and layers of filtered versions of Levin’s poetry.
Highlights of the CD include What Can They Do? and I Am That Little Girl Again. Each features clear, powerful poetry readings over evocative backgrounds. The texts paint oblique character portraits, and the tracks flow together, blurring where one ends and another begins. The music is part jazz kit, part ambient drones and part chamber music.
Secret Voices’ No Time For Silence is one of the most original releases we’ve heard this year. It’s challenging music that demands your attention.
You can preview the CD at the Secret Voices MySpace page.
Tracks:
- The Chain Chant
- Tristan Fragment
- Finally Without Chains
- To Be Perfectly…Frank
- Deja Vu Dued All Over Again
- Displaced By The Blink Of A Third Eye
- A Silence Invades Me
- What Can They Do?
- I Am That Little Girl Again
