Madre, Protegenos |
May 17th, 2007
contributed by |
From the guy that was primarily responsible for the way Anathema’s Alternative 4 record came into being, comes the Ìon album. Patterson named his band after the Gaelic word for ‘pure’, after parting ways with Mick Moss in Antimatter to devote all of his efforts to his own band.
I’d heard about Ion for awhile, maybe read about it around its inception time, so when I came around to check this album out, I was surprised it was released as late as it was [sometime in 2006]. Since checking this out, I’ve read more about his new philosophy towards life and the album — supposed to tap into Duncan’s spiritual identity and heritage.
Primarily driven by acoustic guitars, light percussion, and elegant “folksy” female vocals the wind instruments occasionally dress the musical “white space”. Duncan varied the usual instrumentation by inviting musicians from Greece, Ireland, Mexico, and Australia & brought in several female singers from Italy, Greece and Mexico to help with production.
Their appearances come to add pieces of each of their country’s colours and dialects to the blissful lead interpretation of Russian muse Emily Saaen, in an eclectic musical quest which feeds not only on each of its characters ethnic heritage, but especially on their own spiritual recollections and experiences.
I thought they captured the vibe of the album with the video.
May 19th, 2007
at 2:41 pm
Thanks for the post - I’ve been curious about this band for quite some time. The music is extremely chill, almost ambient at times. I’m not sure it’s for me yet.. will give it more listens. The female spoke word sort of hits me the wrong way, but the music underneath is earthy in a great way.
May 19th, 2007
at 3:01 pm
Maybe I should’ve added that this album is not strong as hell beginning to end. I’d say I wasn’t terribly into the latter half, so it’s a mixed bag.
May 19th, 2007
at 5:22 pm
Damn, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted here. I’ve missed out on a lot of great music.
Interesting song. It starts out a bit weak in my opinion but the latter half is absolutely beautiful. Really haunting.
June 6th, 2007
at 3:09 am
It took me a while to get into this track. It’s not that it’s ‘bad’ - in fact, I think it’s something of a grower - it’s just that I don’t think it’s entirely my cup of tea.
However, after I gave the track a few listens I found that I had started to warm to it. I’m still not 100% sure about the vocals, but the rest of it is strangely addictive. As Chris said, it’s really haunting. Perhaps I’ll have a listen to it again when it’s dark tonight… Maybe it will reach a new level then!
Overall, it’s an interesting track - but certainly not one that I loved instantly.