{"id":41530,"date":"2009-05-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/love-happening\/"},"modified":"2009-05-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-29T00:00:00","slug":"love-happening","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/love-happening\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Happening"},"content":{"rendered":"

Countless couples have made music together before. Some are more discreet than others (think Meg and Jack White, who masqueraded as siblings for how long?); some sing their emotions shamelessly from the rooftops (Sonny and Cher, anyone?); some, like Brooklyn electro-punks Matt & Kim, use their love to birth a youthful energy that every hipster teen can relate to.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Joining these ranks is duo Charlotte & Magon, the former a Frenchwoman and the latter an Israeli man. They chatted online for two years before meeting in the flesh in March 2008 to record an album together \u2013 and, as the story goes, fell hopelessly in love in the process. That album, Love Happening<\/i>, is a perfect reflection of their feelings for each other, but it\u2019s sometimes so overly emotional that it leaves the listener feeling a little voyeuristic.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The album opens with the rumble of waves before drifting into the euphoria of \u201cVagalam,\u201d where Charlotte<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> introduces herself by murmuring in a mid-range sigh about \u201cmaking love in the sand\u201d while her lover Magon\u2019s \u201chair shines in the sun.\u201d In the same vein as French ambient pioneers Air, the song \u2013 and the album as a whole \u2013 relies on a subtle electronic zephyr to carry it forth which, when coupled with Charlotte<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s waif-like vocals, produces a gorgeous atmospheric calm. That is, until Magon\u2019s voice joins the scene, sonorously whispering in a seductive tone: \u201cThe smell of your feet is invading me.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Now, there is no boundary in art. People are permitted to express what they want, as they want \u2013 but there\u2019s something about listening to an urgent, almost animalistic ode to foot fetishism that is incredibly unsettling, teetering on the edge of an accidental peepshow. Put it this way: looking at a couple in love is heartwarming and sweet, but walking in on the same couple in a compromising position is awkward, even though the act is obviously a manifestation of their love.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

When sex is not so explicitly mentioned, however, the lyrical blends more subtly and tastefully into the musical and has a much more poignant effect. Introducing elements such as flute and synthesizer, Charlotte & Magon experiment with different types of vocal delivery, from whispered spoken word to heavily layered fifth progressions. Their singing voices work quite well together (her wispy alto and his gently shaking tenor). And if you find yourself thinking you\u2019ve heard this music before, you have; Serge Gainsbourg pioneered this exact style of atmospheric chanson years ago, right down to the heavy sexual themes. In this sense, the French influence in the music and lyrics is almost overwhelming, but there\u2019s much less of a nod to Israeli musical styles \u2013 a real disappointment as it would have been fascinating to hear more on how the meeting of two cultures emotionally would transpire musically.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

With the continuing theme of the ocean and its vast nature (much like the nature of love, actually), Love Happening <\/i>rolls just as recklessly as the sea. It starts with the calm arousal of \u201cVagalam,\u201d slides into the electric sexuality of \u201cHoward,\u201d turns the lights out with the seductive \u201cWaves,\u201d becomes a subtle lullaby with \u201cI Love You, You Are My Friend,\u201d and bows out humbly with the piano echo of \u201cSounds Like An Ending.\u201d Like the ocean, it lurches and lulls unexpectedly. The music is calm yet frenetically charged, atmospherically vast and touching. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Love Happening <\/i>is just what its title suggests: the lushly atmospheric sound of two people entangled in each other, wrapped up in the delicious sensation of discovering what it means to fall in love. The sounds are sweepingly grand and the ideas formidable, and the fact that Charlotte and Magon discovered their passion for one another while making this album makes the emotions rampant in the music \u2013 however excessive \u2013 all the more credible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":29908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8404],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-41530","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-charlotte-magon","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41530","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\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41530"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}