Artist:
Terra Nine
vs Squazoid
vs Squazoid
Title:
Karuna E.P.
Label:
Altar Records
Released:
13th June
A
collaboration that almost spans to the opposite side of the globe.
Auckland based Mike Westcott
electric voila fused ambient trance joins forces with Parisian global
psy-chill producer Jeremy
Bringué. The
seed of this track was planted after an impromptu jam at a party in
Jeremy's studio in 2013 where Mike played a few notes on the voila
which grew into a few more and the basis of the piece was born add
some bass, cello and more strings and they had found a piece that
emotionally moved them to tears. They played the piece to some select
artists who were interested in re-mixing the track and this is the
long awaited result.
The
E.P. begins with the original piece with an orchestral intro of
hauntingly beautiful strings, while the electronics slowly and
delicately gain volume and harmonic voices are added. Although they
have their moments to shine they never overpower the orchestral spine
of the piece.
Moving
onto the re-mixes not surprisingly the first contender is Pete Ardron
who often employs a classical underbelly in his own productions. In
places his input is subtle with a little added ethnic percussion and
at others he takes it up a notch some housey piano, wonderful key
loops and panned reverb. The result is a lovely enhancement on an
already heavenly piece.
The
E.P. moves on with fellow Parisian Franck Jousselin (Kick Bong) who
unexpectedly adds guitar to the strings and in places his own synth
flavours that rest above the underlying sounds of the original but
never entirely block it out. An interesting alternative that I
wouldn't dismiss.
Unknown
Reality (who previously were unknown to me) add a progressive trance
vibe to the piece but maintain a strong orchestral emotion with their
version. Once again I'm impressed with the result you can really fly
into a dream with this one.
Next
to imprint their take on the track is Terra Nine's label mate
Astropilot who shifts the emphasis to the dancefloor with a rolling
underbelly of a bassline, while still maintaining the heavenly voices
and strings as you would come to expect with his own productions.
Another
new face (or new sound even) for me is Cloower Wooma who utilise all
the elements of the original strings and harmonic voices fooling me
to believe this would be an atmospheric ambient take, where infact it
they employ an elongated intro before stamping down the bassline.
Finally
seeing out the E.P. is Suduaya who adds some dreamy piano and reverb
to the voices with this blissful adaptation the term sofa sinking
couldn't be more apt in this case. An absolutely superb slice of
chill out.
Some
may argue that 7 versions of one track is
a bit too much.
But
in
cases like this when
you have such a lovely
piece of music
and a
pallette
of
sounds from artists
who
know how to draw on the emotion and at times enhance aspects of it. I
for one am glad there is.
Review
by Woodzee
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