Drag City
The Valerie Project (US,2007)****'
Just after the original Czech movie soundtrack was re-released, these Philadelphia musicians discovered the weird looking movie and decided to provide it with a soundtrack of their own. I just saw a little piece of the movie with music and I must say it succeeded very well to make the images more magical. The group is an 11 piece orchestra consisting of some of the cream of the new artfolk scene, making this a rather monster group for the genre. The music sounds pretty chamber-music (artrock) like (with certain new prog-rock leanings), partly improvised but depending on various themes. The music build up rather emotionally and combines different themes to certain highlights before a few breaking themes. You hear each member (like Greg Weeks with his recognisable style of fuzz guitar, slightly dominating at times) clearly with its own contribution, with a clarity in sound and with its own interwoven evolutions, but in the emotionally building the group and composition is so much one entity that this doesn’t really matter. A rather small theme with cello returns just two times, while in general this is an ever evolving story, with the emotionality as its coming and going of tensions. Only “machine-room” has a rather different more distorted tension, referring to some weird part in the movie. An over 74 minutes masterly piece. I hope with this release they will be able to place a landmark/ milestone.
The group consists of Jim Ayre : percussion, bells ; Tara Burke (Fursaxa) : wordless vocals ; Charles Cohen : electronics ; Helena Espvall-Santoleri : cello, vocals ; Mary Lattimore : concert harp ; Brooke Sietinsons : acoustic guitars, omnichord, jaw harp, autoharp, space echo, bells ; Jesse Sparhawk : electric bass ; Greg Weeks : electric guitar, Rhodes, recorder, Korg cynthesizer, mettallophon, Jessica Weeks : flutes, Rhodes ; Margaret Wienk : cello, wordless vocals, harmonium ; Orion Rigel Dommisse : gues vocalist on one track.
