Drag City
Espers : II (US,2006)****°
Now expanded to a sextet, (adding cellist Helena Espvall, drummer Otto Hauser and bass player Chris Smith) Espers has developed their sound and strength, deepening in all directions, both emotionally and musically. As a sextet the group’s vivid creations sound like a they are founded like the magical mandala on the front cover, with a strong focusing form to this expansion, developing a continuum of emotions of mostly rather melancholic beauty, which thanks to the strong structural balance at the same time has a certain freedom to build up various tensions with harmonies, creating some strains in overtone-melodic evolutions and rhythms, but mostly describe with a combination of delicacy, variation, beauty and strength. One more step liberated from boundaries in folk, they as easily add some chambermusic-kind of arrangements or flavours, which makes them at times more like a kind of art-rock band, ever in respect for the essence of what are the acoustic/electric fundaments of any musical expressions. Like before there are a great variety of instruments, I still love to death the beautiful folk-voice of Jesse Sparhawk, which are alternated by the alternated ideas from Greg Weeks, and the group’s somewhat improvisational arrangements. It’s a surprise how they, with an ever growing success, still keep on showing growth of quality. This third album is released by three different labels (in America,Europe and Japan). Highly recommended, essential.
The next "Espers" related product (2007) is The Valerie Project (see next page->) ; 2009 CD is reviewed below->
