French artists Didier Malherbe (originally of European
\nprogressive rock band Gong) and Loy Ehrlich seem determined to play
\nevery odd instrument they can find on this, their first CD for
\nsmall label Zebra Acoustic Records.<\/p>\n
Instrumental credits include the doudouk or Armenian double
\nreed, the bamboo clarinet, the sapilka or Ukranian double recorder,
\nthe zeff, the hajouj or Moroccon Gnawas’ bass, the African hunters’
\nguitar, harp, and thumb-piano\u2026and the ukelele. Needless to
\nsay, this CD is filed under “World Music,” and for good reason.
\nMalherbe and Ehrlich’s goal seemed to be to create a CD filled with
\nthe soft jazz\/new age sound inherent in a thousand chirping birds
\nand synthesizer Windham Hill releases, but do it acoustically, and
\ndo it well.<\/p>\n
So did they succeed? Good question. Musically,
\nHadouk<\/i> is as tight a sound as you’d want. The various exotic
\ninstruments form a seamless whole, smooth and tight, the sound
\neerily reminiscent of synthesized music but with the breaths and
\nslight unevenness that marks an acoustic performance. The wind
\ninstruments specifically have a rich, complex sound that marks
\nMalherbe as a master of his chosen craft. There is also nothing to
\nfault about the production of Malherbe and Didier; the sound of the
\nCD is crystalline, without any of the mud that sometimes plagues
\nsmall-label releases.<\/p>\n
If anything fails, however, it’s the content of
\nHadouk<\/i>. New age music usually suffers from an overdose of
\nbland, and
\nHadouk<\/i> is, sadly, no exception. Nothing really stands out
\nabout the compositions themselves – they’re ephemeral, vanishing
\nlike fog under the sun the moment your CD player has moved past
\nthem. Instrumentation this fascinating deserved better, more
\nmemorable music. Only the soaring, mysterious “Hadouk”, the oddly
\nbouncy “Loukoumotive”, the acoustic guitar of “Effarvatte”, and the
\nrich woodwinds of “Caspienne Blues” are at all remarkable.<\/p>\n
\nHadouk<\/i> isn’t a bad CD at all, but it’s not going to interest
\nanyone but the dedicated New Age fan or those interested in the
\nalternative instrument selection of world music. As a sociology
\nproject, it’s fascinating, but as a collection of music it leaves
\nsomething to be desired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":25762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6536],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36968","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-didier-malherbe-loy-ehrlich","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36968"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36968"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}