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Barbez, "Insignificance"
This is the third album from the wonderfully eclectic Barbez. Mixing mainly eastern European traditional music with cabaret, avant garde and straight up rock Insignificance is both unique sounding yet it sounds utterly familiar. A less than standard instrumentation and an immensely talented singer make for a gem of an album.
Important
Insignificance is bathed in eastern European charm, no small amount of thanks to Russian singer Ksenia Vidyaykina whose operatic yet folky voice holds centre court whenever it appears. At first I found Vidyaykina’s voice hard to listen to, it reminded me of poor goth metal bands who employ a classically trained female singer to bring them some artistic credibility but I was allowing prejudices to get in the way of appreciating the quality of her performance. Her voice is powerful yet controlled, sometimes though it breaks through into a more passionate and less stiff phrasing, especially on the traditional songs “As for the Little Grey Rabbit” and "The Sea Spread Wide."
The rest of the band are not playing second fiddle to Vidyaykina, each of the other players are equally tight and talented. Tunick’s marimba and vibraphone add a more worldly feel to the album, expanding its borders past the obvious eastern European settings. There are two different drummers and it’s hard to tell that it wasn’t the work of one regular drummer, both play sympathetically to the other musicians and are obviously well versed in various forms of traditional music. Most tracks change timings throughout their duration, rarely is something as a 4/4 beat present yet it doesn’t ever sound like Barbez are trying to make the music more complicated for the sake of being complicated. In fact it sounds beautifully simple.
What I can’t let go unmentioned is Pamelia Kurstin’s incredible theremin playing. When I first listened to the album I thought there were violin and cello players, on consulting the sleeve notes it appears I was very much mistaken, all of the “strings” were Kurstin. The theremin is famously hard to play as a tonal instrument and I must take my hat off to her for producing such wonderful melodies from it, it’s easy to see why the late Bob Moog held her in such high regard. After hearing “Strange” and “Song of the Moldau” (originally “Das Lied von der Moldau” by Brecht and Eisler) it has completely opened my ears as to how a theremin should sound.
It is very hard to find fault with Insignificance. Nothing sounds forced or contrived. The performances from all the musicians are flawless, they all are clearly comfortable with their chosen instrument and with playing with each other. It can take a couple of listens to fully come to terms with the songs, they are carefully crafted and it needs some effort and attention from the listener to appreciate them. This small amount of effort pays off in the long run as these songs are so intricate that every time I listen to Insignificance I find something new lurking between the notes.
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