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4.0 out of 5 stars
Borderline coma inducing, but in a good way! (run your bubble bath now!), September 29, 2005
This review is from: Quiet Letters: Us Edition (Audio CD)
89.9 FM KCRW Santa Monica's evening DJs Jason Bentley and Raoul Campos have been playing Bliss' new CD the past month, "Kissing" especially. (Bliss also have another great percussion driven track on a new Oliver Peoples CD that KCRW is also playing.)
This is ultra chill. I came home from a hard day's work last week, lit candles, incense, got in the tub with this CD on - it's the poor man's/woman's spa.
Bliss' members are from Denmark, Sweden and West-Africa (doesn't specify which W.Af. country, but I'm guessing Ghana, since there are a number of folks from Ghana residing in Denmark.
Marc-George Andersen handles all keyboards and Steffen Aaskoven takes care of "samples and sound design". The two produced and arranged all the twelve tracks with Kenneth Bager, a veteran Danish DJ/producer getting executive producer credit.
Tchando, a West African singer who lives in Denmark with his Danish wife and their two children (there are many African musicians/singers in Denmark who greatly add to the Danish music) scene gives the album an "Youssur N'Dour flavor".
Danish/African Al Agami contributes his voice to "Song for Olabi" together with Danish opera soprano Xenia Lach-Nielsen, whose vocals were also added to "Kissing".
The female lead vocals: Swedish (I believe) Alexandre Hamnede sings on most of the tracks, including the chill hit - "Kissing".
Sophie Barker from Zero 7 provides vocals on the beautiful "Don't look back" and and the okay "Right Here".
Pretty voices, for sure, albeit not very distinctive. There's some Sade influences, some Deep Forest, some Enigma, some "cinematic music" flavor. It's soothing, pretty, and occasionally spine-tingling. (What makes Sade unique is that her music is pretty too, but it's "sophisticated-pretty" and her voice is unlike anyone else's. The closest Sade like voice I've heard is Rachel Foster, the truly sublime white British singer who makes up one half of the duo The Weekend Players - they have a new album coming out later this year. Their "The Pursuit of Happiness" from a few years ago is a 11 on a 1-10 scale)
But back to Bliss's Quiet Letters: as a bubblebath/candle soundtrack, it's sheer perfection and there should be room for this type of music. The lyrics are "fillers", but hey, it can't all be Bob Dylan. Be openminded, expose yourself to different music.
Scandinavia has given us the Sugarcubes, the comepletely unique Bjork, Sigur Ros, the Hives, KOOP, Royksopp, the Raveonettes, and of course Abba and Roxette. Of these, Bjork and Koop are my favorites hands down, but Bliss is a nice addition. I give this CD four stars, in part because of the production, which is sublime - sounds amazing even on my 10-year old cheap Sony boom box.
Note: Bliss employ several Danish musicans on this album who will not be familiar names to US audiences:
Jacob Andersen, sublime veteran percussionist.
Mads Vinding, veteran jazz bass player.
Kim Sjogren, a well-respected conductor in Denmark, provides the string music with The Mermaid Strings.
Interesting by the way how music can make things come full circle. Denmark was once a slave trading nation, getting her royal hands bloody in the West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands.) There is a former slave fortress on the coast of what is now Ghana. It is/was named Christiansborg which just happens to be the name of the castle in Copenhagen that once belonged to the Danish royal family but now houses the parliament. The musicians/singers from Ghana who settle in Denmark, marry Danish women and have children, bring their music to the country that brought their ancestors to the West Indies to work the sugar plantations until ca. 1848. The circle is complete, with Danish and African musicians coming together and making music.
In the US, this CD is out on the great Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles label Quango. In Denmark, the label is Music for Dreams. (Bliss also have several tracks on various chill music compilations, some of which are Quango releases).
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