By: Daniela Patrizi
Esmerine | website | facebook |
Released on October 16, 2015 via Constellation Records
It’s hard to find the right words to describe the new album by Esmerine except to say that it is beyond beautiful. I still consider Dalmak as their biggest achievement but with Lost Voices once again they exceed expectations delivering a great album. There’s no doubt that what makes the Montreal based chamber rock collective so unique is the incredible range of instruments and sounds they put in place in every piece of music they write and with these premises they cannot disappoint.
With the tour of last 2013 bassist Jeremi Roy joined the band therefore expanding the Dalmak’s core quartet composed by Bruce Cawdron (Godspeed You! Black Emperor), Rebecca Foon (Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra, Saltland), Jamie Thompson (The Unicorns, Islands, Little Scream) and Brian Sanderson.
In a running time of about 46 minutes and throughout its 9 tracks Lost Voices offers a wide range of styles from minimalist cello touches to explosive crescendos to elements of post rock and math rock, quiet and noisy moments all superbly combined to create what has been defined the first “Esmerine’s rock album” even if I think that they create a sound that can’t be easily tagged. Their style is a music genre in and of itself.
Lost Voices opens up with the six-minute ‘The Neighbourhoods Rise’ and you’ll immediately be seduced by the cello touches and a melody that acts like a mermaid that takes your hand and takes you into the Esmerine’s world. ‘The Neighbourhoods Rise’ is complex and simple at the same time and its execution is brilliant. Esmerine know how to write a grandiose introduction.
The following ‘A River Runs Through This City’ changes the album’s tone and we slowly slide into a mesmerizing melody and a gentle and pursuing rhythm that soothes you and wraps you into an incredible crescendo.
I’ve been listening to Lost Voices countless of time before writing this review and I think that each song sets the plate emotionally; they are each moving and beautiful, they involve the listeners leaving them room to reinterpret them and they have the power to open a window to a new world. The exuberant density of ’19/14′ and the wonderfully tense build-up around its third minute are an example of one of those windows and experiences. The journey is unexpected and at the end of it you can just say “wow!”.
In its multitude of sounds, Lost Voices doesn’t miss tender compositions offered by the two piano-and-string minuets that close each side of the record. So ‘A Trick Of The Light’ ends the first part of the album taking us into the minimal and so emotive sound created the xylophone and the cello of ‘My Mamma Pinned A Rose On Me’. It’s simply magnificent.
‘Funambule (deus pas de Serein)’ is the synthesis of what Esmerine have ever done in 7:45 minutes. There’s no one wasted moment here: ‘Funambule (deus pas de Serein)’ is hypnotic, calming, sometimes dark and sometimes bright. ‘Funambule (deus pas de Serein)’ is the most beautiful poem translated in notes. Seriously.
Lost Voices ends with the elegant ‘Lullaby For Nola’, the second piano-and-strings minuet of a supremely well-realized album. Whatever you are doing, whenever you are, allow yourself to truly feel this record. It’s a gorgeous experience, flawless from start to finish.
