Homescape (Dig)

Nguyen Le | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 12, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Act Music + Vision
• ASIN: B000EGCEBS
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,282 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

**** October 2007- Down Beat

"Brian Eno's dictum that the studio is the new instrument has come to bear on jazz-related music with the seduction of home-studio production. Like any instrument, home tech doesn't guarantee the success of the end product. Making something worthwhile in this manner now requires avoiding some of the most obvious moves offered up by domestic studio gear. Guitarist Nguyên Lê's foray into the domestic music production front, recorded in 2004 and 2005, has yielded an enjoyable and personal result. Awash in electronic beats and the requisite layering and effects, it manages to retain a strong sense of logic for each track, not turning the whole affair into a mush of pointless mixmastery or overindulgent cross-fades. Lê's guitar remains the fulcrum of Homescape, and it is as clear and resonant as it is brilliant. His solo on the opening track `Starnieri,' with its hyperbolic Vietnamese bends and wonderful palpability, displays his digital powers. The disc's guests, trumpeter and flugelhornist Paulo Fresu, who flew in from Italy to work at Lê's home in Paris, and the guitarist's neighbor, Tunisian oud player and singer Dhafer Youssef, willingly subjected their music to his post-production manipulation.

Fresu mines the frequently tapped Miles Davis shaft, but he also finds some nice modified trumpet sounds on `Mali Iwa' that suggest Jon Hassel, especially when Lê pairs them with gulping percussion. On `Des Prés,' Fresu's rich long-tone underpins a nearly goofily French whistling guitar-synth part, while on Billy Strayhorn's `Chelsea Bridge,' they play it relatively straight, elegantly so. Youssef's duets with Lê are quite direct, his voice cradled by the guitar on `Beyti,' his oud egged on by Lê on `Zafaran.' On `Kithâra,' two lutes state the melody together, breaking apart for a guitar solo. Youssef plays with a groovy dance backdrop on `Byzance' to good effect."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nguyen Le's Exoticism, August 8, 2007

By 

zeriab sufi ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Homescape (Dig) (Audio CD)

The latest: Homescape
In Homescape Nguyen Le along with Dhafer Youssef and Paolo Fresu were able to create a celestial atmospheric music which is bouncing between electroambient and classical jazz walks.
The tracks are:


Stranieri:
This track with its opening interlude introduces you into the music cocktail that you are going to taste just from one cup. The rhythm is usually slow with an ascending tempo to follow the path of the beat.

Byzance:
This anthem is a funk jazz-taqsim with Dhafer's vocals jumping between the foreground and the background and creating in the same time a mystical scent.

Muqqam:
As the track title speaks, but this is more like a low-voltage nahwand! With echoing reverbs to give the listeners the feeling of depth and warmness and in the same time urging to increase the volume!

Mali Iwa:
Nguyen's genius touches floating, whirling, looping and fleeing into sacred chambers. The rhythm is again 1930's jazz without form but in the same time melodic and improvising.

Zafaran:
I guess the yellow impression of the CD cover comes from this yellowish-zafaran feeling. The mood is purely eastern joy mixed with electronic celebrations and can show the ululating instruments with the vocals changing roles so the listeners will find himself/ herself sinking into moody tone. Joy.

Domus De Janas:
Here he is Paolo Fresu giving birth for the angels of brass section hallucinations. I like it when he makes the blowing sounding as shamanic incantation!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surreal Fusion of Arabic and African music with electronica and jazz, December 24, 2008

By 

Scott Williams "sneakyneighborsdog" (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Homescape (Dig) (Audio CD)

Overview:
Nguyen Le, Paolo Fresu, and Dhafer Youssef have created a modern electronic, Arabic fantasy world with the release of Homescape. From the minute you pop on the album you are immersed in a trance inducing wall of sound that borrows from many influences. Nguyen Le plays acoustic, fretless, synthesizer, e-bow, and Vietnamese guitar as well as adding in computer programming and electronics. Paolo Fresu adds an airy trumpet and flugelhorn as well as electronics. Dhafer Youssef plays the oud and adds vocals and electronics. The middle eastern touches of Youssef and the airy flowing horn of Fresu are blended with absolute beauty to create a stellar backdrop for the electronic guitar play of Nguyen Le. This album has a wonderful flow from start to finish and it immediate sends your mind drifting off to faraway places. This is great background music and very conducive to daydreaming.

Song Highlights: (It is hard to pick out highlights here because every song is great and is essential to the overall mood of the album).

Zafaran: Trancelike melody with great electric guitar soloing by Nugyen Le with haunting spiritual background vocals.

Chelsea Bridge: What an odd version of this Billy Strayhorn classic. It opens with haunting trumpet by Fresu and he is backed up and complimented nicely by the guitar playing of Nguyen Le. You wouldn't think this track would fit it in this album, but somehow the brooding melody flows perfectly in this contemplative album.

Safina: The haunting wails both vocal and from the screaming guitar of Nguyen Le are drenched with pain and suffering. The feedback manipulation by Nguyen Le is fantastic.

This album gets my highest recommendation.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Consistent creativity, September 2, 2007

By 

M. Beeman (Toledo, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Homescape (Dig) (Audio CD)

I happened across some of Nguyen Le's work years ago while scouring the bins for something different. I have, since then, followed and enjoyed his work although it has seen limited distribution in U.S. and it occasionally takes months to accept delivery. For me, it is worth the wait. This music is consistently creative and exhibits a quintessential mix of styles, cultures and compositional maturity. Very clean recording. A great addition to any international jazz collection.