A review from MusicMachinist
(Russian online mag) - english translation
JOHN KAMEEL FARAH "UNFOLDING"
(P) & (C) 2009 DROSS:TIK RECORDS
10 TKS/71 MINS
The new album of the Canadian pianist and eletronic music player John
Kameel Farah contains insistent and pleasant
avant-garde music for
the trained
ear, which ingeniously
conbines modern classical jazz
and elements of idm-electronic music, ambience and breakcore. The
artist performs most compositions in an intellectual, psychadelic and
emotional improvisatory manner, which automatically implies that the
material performed is abstract and experimental. And this is exactly
what it is. John Kameel Farah's music either fully and completely
envelops the listeners, forcing them to follow the musical flourishes
with bated breath and dilated pupils, or immediately lets them know
that it is not for them.
Along with habit-requiring, feverishly pulsing and innovative-sounding
breakcore tracks, such as "Uprising" or "The Catalysm," the album
contains easier to understand, beautiful, inspired and melodious pieces
with flowing and stirring arpeggios. delicate percussion, as well as
twinges of the spirit that varies from cool concert classical music
and mathematical jazz constructions to heated, almost Brazilian motifs.
For example, the composition "Crystalline" sounds very soulful,
skilled, and sometimes even playful, while the pieces "Expanse,"
"Augury." "Sama'i Farah" and "Calling (of the sea)" win the audience
over with their bravado, expressivity, and depth, as well as with some
abstracted schizophrenia bordering on genius, and with perfect piano
passages.
I must say that John Kameel Farah's virtuoso piano playing invokes mute
admiration in me. Of course, piano is the main instrument of the album.
But the musician does not limit himself only to piano and electronic
music of the synthesizer and the computer. His composition is permeated
by the sounds of violoncello, violin, clarinet, live drums, darabuka
and, several times, even by dance grooves. Furthermore, the rich in
wind, string, and percussion elements composition "Jinju Dervish" has
Arabic and North Indian overtones. At the same time, this track does
not have the ever-present piano and does not fit into the relatively
academic isolational concert format, and so its presence in the album
seems a little unexpected.
I see "Unfolding" as an aesthetic, introspective, many-layered and
energetic album with so-called "new music," created with the help of
acoustic and electronic instruments by a true professional, who, as a
creative individual, is always in search of new musical forms. If you
do not have strong antipathy to complex experimental jazz and classical
music, then I recommend that you, at least for broadening your
horizons, familiarize yourself with the new work of John Kameel Farah.
This Canadian musician produced a really intesting and original album,
with a label "not for everyone". (translation:
Natalia Khomenko)