Private / Revolver / B.D.D! Damon & Naomi : The Earth is Blue (US,2005)**°
Damon and Naomi in their own recording process were in control and perfected their own sound sphere. This duo with Damon Krukowski, acoustic guitar, drums vocals and Naomi Yang, bass, keyboards, vocals had made in 2000 a cooperative album before with the Japanese psych-folk/post-kraut psych band Ghost and asked their guitarist Michio Kurihara to participate again with some arrangements. Here and there more touches were added afterwards by Greg Kelly on trumpet, Bhob Rainy on sax and Dana Kletter on piano. A known special quality of the duo is Naomi’s lush, in some way Ithaca-like dreamy voice, used in a soft and ethereal indierock at times or mostly dreamy pop context. The songs constantly are in the middle of overcoming melancholic sadness and with a sweet gentle attitude, here are made comfortable with a tempered happiness towards an environmental focus. Most songs are sung by Naomi. The male vocal driven songs, like “Ueno Station” might have a slightly different mood, but fit well. The overall musical sphere description I think was pretty important for this release. It is this sphere which gets some different variations of arrangements. Within this variation the songs hang together well with a natural flow. This general sphere can be described as a watery gaze, with some colourful differences and clarity in the definite sound blend. It has a kind of the daydreaming intimacy which the clear mist of a blue sky provides, as a inspiration, as a constant present guardian over the musical environment of the songs. This is what I think is an important and successful focused aspect on the album, and which might be significance of the album title. Nice to see also a folk-like, only partly melancholic, version of “While my Guitar gently weeps” of this fine Beatles track.
