The old Irish proverb says that one should never speak ill of
\nthe dead. That makes me really hate reviewing
\nAngelos<\/i>, the third disc from Austria-based Agnus Dei.<\/p>\n
This duo, comprised of keyboardist Gerald Krampl and poet Hilde
\nKrampl, had released two discs of New Age piano music when Hilde
\ndied of cancer in 2002. Grief-stricken, her husband continued the
\nproject, combining Hilde’s poems with his music. This disc revolves
\naround the army of archangels, combined with a musical expression
\nof grief over the loss of his wife and partner.<\/p>\n
You see, that’s why I hate having to review
\nAngelos<\/i>. I hate having to say anything bad about this disc
\ndue to the circumstances surrounding it. But it is as boring as
\nsitting through a day’s worth of church services.<\/p>\n
I know that Hilde Krampl’s poems should go hand-in-hand with the
\nmusic, but I’ve never been a scholar of poetry, so forgive me if I
\nleave that area to someone with more expertise. I focus on the
\nmusic — and, truth be told, Gerald Krampl’s compositions are dull,
\ndull, dull. Each of the 11 tracks revolves around its own musical
\ntheme, repeating it as often as some of the prayers we used to
\nchant when I was attending Mass on a regular basis, thus sucking
\nwhat little life had been in the songs out due to sheer
\nrepetition.<\/p>\n
Now, this isn’t a damnation of New Age music, or even piano
\nmusic for that matter. When the music is well-written, I don’t care
\nwhat genre it belongs to, the music has a way of capturing and
\nenrapturing the listener. If only any of the tracks on
\nAngelos<\/i> did that, it would be a better disc. Instead, tracks
\nlike “Anael” and “Ezechiel” tend to grate on the listener’s nerves,
\nmaking them want to invoke something other than the heavenly
\nseraphim for relief.<\/p>\n
I even wish I could say something positive about the disc’s
\ncloser, “Grief,” a song written in memory of Hilde Krampf. But
\nwhile Gerald Krampf tries to create a soundscape which offers hope
\nin spite of the obvious vacuum in his life, the track feels like it
\ndoesn’t fit the mood at all. I hate to say it, but I’d have
\npreferred something quieter without the electronica – possibly even
\nsomething more akin to a dirge – to really capture the emotion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7051],"rating":[11203],"class_list":["post-38041","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-agnus-dei","rating-rating-d-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38041","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38041"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}