Customer Reviews

Delay

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I attended a great Antony and the Johnsons concert last night and I noticed that the atmospheric and rhythmic themes all flowed from Julia Kent the cellist, so I went to her website (JuliaKent.com) to learn more. She is a prolific Indie artist accompanist as well as a solo artist. There were three sample MP3s on the website so I downloaded them and saw even more of the brilliance she showed with Antony and the Johnsons. After that there was no way to avoid purchasing her CD,Delay, from Amazon. Delay takes me to places of creative peace. Ordinary music usually stimulates only one of those emotions at a time but she knows how to silence the mind while enlightening the source from which we all flow. That is the source of great music and I am sure that Julia Kent will become a major avant garde artist. Think of the Kronos Quartet playing Philip Glass, but both the artist and the composer are one. I am writing my next book with her playing in the background. And no she did not pay me to write this glowing review, the first time I have been so moved that I wrote an online review.

I cannot speak highly enough of this beautiful CD, this collection of constellations in the bright night sky. Gorgeous galaxies, music & stars bursting into being from this body hugging cello by Ms. Julia Kent. Be prepared to travel to other worlds, interior and elsewhere... hang on to these coattails and be ready to ride; what a gift to be allowed to follow and fly. I could not ask for more.

This is the music of poets set to eternal vibrations, from whence we came and where will we go... Listen to "Gardemoen" which is in reality an airport in Oslo, Norway*. This plane will take off and take you on travels through the stars.

5 stars for the seven sisters of the Pleiades and more; adding in more worlds and comets in her jewel-like crown. You will travel through starlit dreams into the magic of the galaxies, flying through darkness and light from where we came and whence we go. This is a CD of the power and depth the cello can bring.l Now I come to wonder and to believe "There WAS Sound before Light." What a gift from the heavens above.

If you are really lucky, try to catch her performance again at The Monkey in NYC. She performed with Redhooker recently, and I hope to attend next time. Something to remember for the rest of your life.

* Note: I just now read the "editorial review" and find that many of the titles to the tracks are named for different airports during her time of touring:

"Delay was recorded over the course of a year (or so) in between touring.... Delay, is a CD of multi-tracked cello and found sounds. It was inspired by the transitory nature of airports, and by the private emotional worlds that we create amid the disorientations and disjunctions of travel."

I had no idea!

This album is just beautiful ... I wish there was a better word to use, but I am unable to find it. A classic album to put on during the evening hours; an album that will help you get in touch with inner feelings.

What music should be; Thoughtful, emotional, intelligent and memorable. For the past several months I have been searching for the perfect stringed contemporary 'chamber' ensemble sound by sifting through artists and groups such as 'Break of Reality', 'Rasputina' (Kent's previous affiliation), 'The Kronos Quartet', 'The Section Quartet', 'Apocalyptica', 'Vitamin String Quartet', 'Vespercellos' and many others. The aforementioned groups were able to temporarily satiate my craving for small ensemble bowed instrumentals but always left me craving a little bit more refinement, originality, or maturity. Julia Kent's album 'Delay' should be the standard against which all of those other artists should be measured. Unfortunately, I do not possess a sophisticated enough vocabulary to give this album proper praise. I can only hope that Julia continues to release music like this far into the future, inspiring younger generations of talented artists to create similarly beautiful music.

I was first introduced to Julia Kent via her contribution (Tempelhof) to the excellent 2009 Important Records Sampler. She's an awesome musician. I think of a Cello as a kind of transducer that, more than any other stringed instrument, reproduces the emotion and passion of the musician, evoking resonance in the listener. Julia Kent's music transports me to places and memories that I haven't visted nearly often enough.