Customer Reviews

Wolfsong Night

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

 

 

I agree that this is a *hard to classify* CD, but not if you are familiar with Tim Clement's other work. The music on this CD completes the adventure of the award-winning "Waterstation", while adding touches that are distinctly Northern and Western. The music is ambient, but tuneful, and includes a marvelous pairing of electronic sounds with slide guitar from Kim Deschamps. This type of instrumental pairing is also found on Steve Roach's wonderful CD "Dust to Dust", but these Canadians arrived there first! The seventh cut on "Wolfsong Night", Angels, combines ethereal, electronic music and slide guitar with soft percussion and a vocal interview with a woman who has had the near-death experience of seeing the "Light" and angels (hence the title). The refrain goes something like, "this is for the one I love, the one who means so much to me...". The cut is a truly mystical and compelling experience. There are also two cuts which feature *throat singing* by Native women. Other tunes combine natural sounds with ambient landscapes. As you can see, this is a difficult CD to describe. I can say, truthfully, that it is one of my personal favorites, and very popular among public radio listeners in Alaska.

If you enjoy the music, also listen to *Waterstation* and the "Best of Danna and Clement". Tim Clement also has another spoken word/music track on the wonderful CD compilation "Slumberland 2" from Waveform records.

Not really classifiable, transcending many of the accepted boundaries of music and sound design, Clement Deschamps takes us into a dark and sometimes chilly musical portrait of his wintry native Canada. A mood and mind altering album like nothing else I've ever heard, and one of my most treasured albums. The use of environmental and languid acoustic and electrical sounds is at once disturbing and electrifying. Definitely a rare and first class artistic effort, not at all for beat junkies.

EXCEPT FOR THE clips of heated conversation in a few peices, the bulk of Clement/Deschamps CD are placeable with movies. I would recommend it to anyone seeking a relaxing setting, although a few are slightly haunting.