Cirque De Soleil / Ka
Album: Ka   Collection:World
Artist:Cirque De Soleil   Added:Nov 2005
Label:Cirque Du Soleil  

Album Review
Sadie McFarlane
Reviewed 2005-12-13
Cirque de Soleil – Ka (Cirque de Soleil Musique)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 12/13/05
If you’ve seen any Cirque, you can imagine all sorts of visuals; if you haven’t, it’s still evocative orchestral music. Moods and tempos vary wildly, all involve orchestra, drums, some electronics/keyboards, accomplished vocals, and mystery languages. Many numbers are a bit cinematic and predictable, but some are really exciting. I like 4, 7, and especially 8, and 10 is pretty good – as far as I’m concerned you can take most of the rest and dump it, unless there’s half nekkid acrobats involved. The final three numbers, in English, are positively embarrassing.
1. 3:06 dramatic drum beats and orchestral noises, slow, rather “primordial spring” feel, female vocal in a vaguely south sea island language.
2. 2:44 upbeat and slightly syncopated, accordion and orchestra, pretty female vocals, Italianesque language.
3. 3:49 slow and gentle, guitar, electronics and lower register female vocals.
4. 4:15 **mysterious drums and chorus, builds in intensity, midtempo, dramatic.
5. 2:30 slow, chimes and violins, rather wistful.
6. 3:46 very slow, full orchestra, if this were Fantasia there’d be flowers blooming after the rain…
7. 5:55 **jungle sounds, uptempo drums/percussion, minor key, definite sense of urgency, choral chanting. Ends slower and somewhat random.
8. 4:16 **midtempo, mysterious and syncopated, interesting vocals, reminds me a lot of some of the more offbeat Bollywood stuff by A.R. Rahman. Builds to a celebratory mood.
9. 2:24 slow, cinematic, a bit cheesy – sounds like music for one of those “flight through the Grand Canyon” movies, and sure enough, that’s the theme.
10. 3:59 *fast percussion and slow drums, subdued (and fairly interesting) instrumentation and breathy vocals.
11. 3:34 slow, low volume, rather tentative, violin. Builds, very cinematic orchestra. Extremely high female vocals.
12. 4:12 scary trombones and chorus, sounds like soundtrack to the Mummy movies. Lots of changes, sometimes frantic.
13. 2:17 slow, rather mournful. Big choir build.
14. 3:33 Holy shit, it’s in English! Unfortunately, it sounds like Celine Dion or something. Stick to made-up languages…
15. 3:28 percussion, slow, more English. Funny how prosaic English can be.
16. 3:48 slow, in English, a love song. BLEARGH!

Track Listing
1. O Makunde   9. Flight
2. Pageant   10. Threat
3. Koudamare   11. Love Dance
4. Storm   12. Battlefield
5. Deep   13. Aftermath
6. Shadowplay   14. If I Could Reach Your Heart
7. Pursuit   15. We've Been Waiting So Long
8. Forest   16. Reach For Me Now