Hard to believe it’s going to be 72 degrees here, in Minnesota today!
The Minnesota Vikings play today, so can’t miss that game.
I got the sides of my large toenails trimmed the other day, as I had ingrown toenails.
They hurt and have to be soaked every day. I walk around ‘limpy Lou.’
Still have plant stuff to deal with outside-hope to get that done,
as well as some household chores.
Let’s add a little music!
Colors of Trance
James Asher &
Madeleine Doherty
2006
Australian didgeridoo-and-percussion maestro James Asher has
always been focused on movement—of people, tectonic plates, clouds, the whole
revolving world—as testified by the muscular figures in funky lockstep on his
album covers. With Colors of Trance, Asher has two great ideas that he
merges together beautifully. The first is to use his global music palette to
reproduce the frenzied sounds of trance; nothing exactly new for Asher, but
unique in its focus and in the natural vibe he brings to the music (as most
trance makes no bones about the synthetic, electronic nature of its beats). The
second idea is to bring in the acclaimed classical harpist Madeleine Doherty to
play on the tracks. A restrained virtuoso with taste and peerless tonality, her
contribution is what moves this into the realm of great collaborative-fusion
art. With the concert-quality harp in action against Asher’s frenetic armies of
koto drums, Chinese zithers, didgeridoos, and funky beats, Colors! of
Trance skids and slithers around the globe until it’s crisscrossed enough to
resemble the inside of some cosmic tennis ball.
Each track is given a
color name, and the opener “Olive” kicks things off with a jam that restlessly
moves across the Eurasian continent in its style and instrumentation, never
losing its basic, hard-driving techno beat. “Yellow” is much cheerier and more
mellow. “Gold” is where the trance element shines brightest, with a frenetic
beat that will be instantly familiar to dance-club mavens although the swirling
harp notes and calming guitars may be a bit of a surprise.
After all
that dancing, the sudden emergence into pure ambient weirdness may be just what
the doctors ordered, but even they won’t be able to believe their ears.
“Emerald” zips and drops in and out with a found sound-collage of
electronic-frequency knob twiddling, Gregorian monk echoes, and pulsating
synthesizers, while Doherty’s harp swirls around like a fairy spreading pixie
dust on everyone’s eyes. So the album goes, flowing into furious dancing and
dreaming and taking off into profound states of rest. The closer, “Peace Song,”
leaves things on a sweet farewell note, with Doherty’s gentle harp and voice
singing a gentle lullaby in a dizzying, sweet high soprano: “Peace I bring you /
Only peace to you.” By then you should be so sweetly exhausted that you will
have no choice but to accept this rare and precious gift, peace. Asher brings
you up through the roots, and Doherty helps you open your petals to the
sunshine.
Enjoy your day
day, you know you can, if you put your mind to it!
I love you!!
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