Trapeze – HuDost (Open Sesame Music)
A lot of bands would close their show with a song like the opening storm here,Trespasser, epic and elemental; it grows from a driving folk ballad into a barely restrained rock creature. No false dramatics here, no insincere power chord Frankenstein, singer floating in the clouds and guitarist growling posing for the mosh pit. No. Here are musicians completely in sync with one another, letting the rhythms unravel, tangled breathless, fiery.
One of the delights of this collection is that it refuses to be pinned down to any one genre or style, but still does not lose its sense of self, its essence of something serene and complete. So we are invited to travel from world music to poignant alternative country, from sly hints of old time progressive, to examples of sheer pop ingenuity.
Knowing the backstory of the albums creation (during the making of Trapeze singer/writer Moksha Sommer was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to prepare herself for surgery) one expects some degree of angst and perhaps fear to pervade the tracks, that it is not the case at all, is a tribute to the strength of Sommer and her partner Jemal Wade Hines.
Rather the songs and the words and the music they float upon showcase a brave steady and rather breathtaking sense of acceptance and hope. This is an album full of the quiet huge joy of living and dreaming, and even when there is loss, it is golden.
For this reviewer, still in awe of Europe’s winter (detached as I am now from the heat of Africa), the mini suite First Snow –Waking-Last Snow is the stand out wonderment in this set that roars from delicacy to raging. In their world there is never total darkness, rather a Dawn, waiting to happen.
Share the light
Catch songs from this album on the NBT Podcast going out on the 9th Sept 09
http://www.nextbigthing.libsyn.com