Dem Trio – the Fountain
Reviewed by Sadie O., 2/13/09
Very traditional Turkish music, mostly strings with some flutes, and a couple of songs with very lovely vocals. Most tracks have a very mournful or wistful tone, which it turns out is fitting. Very skilled musicianship (almost all from the trio) with interplay and extemporizing, rather like Turkish chamber music. Scholarly liner notes. Turks tend to use a lot of traditional elements in all sorts of popular music, but this is the pure stuff. Mostly has an “Eastern” tinge to it – it’s Anatolian rather than European.
No FCCs. All are quite beautiful; I like 1, 4, 14 and 15 best.
1. ***downtempo strummed instruments with a strong (non-drum) beat, fat bottom end.
2. *solo bowed instrument, high tone, subdued strumming.
3. **pretty, low register plucked instrument, lots of embellishment, not much other instrumentation for first minute. Peaceful and mellow.
4. ***solo plucked instrument with overtones
5. **midtempo, upbeat, several instruments with the feel of a line dance.
6. *rather mournful and mysterious horns, then a variety of very slow strings and flutes, no beat.
7. **midtempo, complex interplay of strings, subdued and sweet, but builds.
8. **strummed instruments and flutes – and vocal duet! Gosh!
9. *minimalist plucked instrument solo.
10. **plucked instruments in unison, slow.
11. **strummed and plucked instruments, sort of a fugue, rather upbeat – a slow line dance, perhaps.
12. *complex strings, high and low – sometimes in unison, sometimes something else.
13. **startlingly jaunty sounding, if downtempo, strings, very folky – Eastern European in feel, as opposed to the more Asian feel of most tracks.
14. ***solo plucked instrument, very pretty and mournful sounding male vocals (female joins after a bit).
15. ***midtempo and lively interplay of several strings.