Sophomore albums tend to scare me. I\'m always afraid that a band or artist will,
at best, be able to match the level of the first release, but rarely do many of them surpass it.
I\'m happy to say that Amethystium\'s second album, Aphelion,
has improved upon what was already working well on the first CD.
For those of you unfamiliar with Amethystium (which is essentially Oystein Ramfjord),
think of Enigma, Deep Forest, Delirium and the like.
To describe the music in another way, I\'ll quote the promotional material.
"Amethystium pairs ancient sounds with futuristic grooves and blends them
into a meditational and fresh escape from the everyday." I noted in my review of
Odonata that I did not find Amethystium to be breaking new ground, per se. However,
I do feel that these CDs are just as good as the one\'s put out by the big-name bands above.
"Shadow to Light" is a great way to kick off Aphelion. The beat starts mellow with
ethereal keyboard sounds slowly fading in. It takes more than a minute and a half for
the tune to ramp up. Multiple melodies are slowly intermixed. I\'m not sure what is more
haunting -- the intermittent flute or the short-lived chants around the mid-point and again
closer to the end of this complex piece. It seems like every time I hear this track,
I notice something I missed before.
"Autumn Interlude" has a light, almost airy quality to it. The piano dominates, backed
by barely perceptible Gregorian chants. The flute makes another appearance. What caps
this piece, however, are the beautiful vocals of Joyelle Brandt. Amethystium can mostly
be considered an instrumental band, as most vocals/chanting are background in nature.
This is one of the few tracks where the music supports the singer instead of the other
way around. Unfortunately, she doesn\'t sing long enough, in my opinion!
"Elvensong" is aptly named. With the Lord of the Rings movies out, the race of elves is
more on the mind than they otherwise would be. If the elves of Middle Earth were with
us today, I would not be surprised to find them producing music such as this. With little
imagination, it is easy to see how the dream-like quality of the music combines elements
of magic and nature. Synave Flobak joins Oystein by playing cello on this track that
definitely adds a sense of elven timelessness to the piece.
I enjoy ethereal electronica that fuses world music with keyboards. I think Amethystium
supports this genre very well. I feel that both Odonata and Aphelion are excellent CDs.
I don\'t think you could go wrong by purchasing either. But I would suggest you do yourself
a favor. Save some time and get them both.
【专辑简介】
Amethystium的第二张专辑令我感觉有些惊讶。因为似乎有一种令我担心的规律，就是一个乐队或音乐人最多只能在其第二张专辑中达到其首张专辑的水准，而他们当中很少有人会超越其首张专辑。我可以高兴地说Amethystium的第二张专辑，Aphelion则突破了上述难以突破首张专辑的规律。对那些不熟悉Amethystium（它本来是Oystein Ramfjord）的人来说，可以拿 Enigma, Deep Forest, Delirium等乐队来作对比。他们有着类似的风格。
为了以另一种方式来描述他们的音乐，我引用一些宣传资料。“Amethystium将远古的声音和未来派的音乐风格结合在一起，可使你从日常生活的千篇一律中脱离出来，或使你陷入沉思，或给你一种新鲜的感觉。”我注意到在我回顾其第一张专辑《Odonata》时，从本质上来讲，我发现Amethystium在风格上并没有开辟新的天地。然而，我的确认为他们的这两张CD是足以和上面提到大牌乐队的CD相媲美的。
专辑Aphelion中的第一首乐曲“Shadow to Light”成功地引领了听者开始一段美妙的音乐之旅。乐曲开始于柔和的节奏，空气般轻柔的键盘声渐渐增强。一分半钟后，曲调增高，多种旋律慢慢地融入。我不确定更多地萦绕于我的脑际的到底是断断续续的长笛声还是出现于乐曲中段及于该复杂篇章的尾段重新出现的短暂圣歌。每次我听这首曲子，似乎总能体会出我以前未体会到的一些东西。
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发表于 2005-12-5 06:15
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