Emotional Eternal

M83～Beach Houseまで横断するドリーミーなサウンドで人気を博すMelody ProchetによるプロジェクトMelody's Echo Chamber 最新作!!!

フランス出身のMelody Prochetによるプロジェクト、Melody's Echo Chamber。
Beach HouseやStereolabらが引き合いに出されるドリーミーでサイケデリック、そしてポップなサウンドが話題となり高い評価を獲得してきた彼女が、サード・アルバム『Emotional Eternal』を発表!
Melody本人に加え、James Yorkstonの作品への参加でも知られるLars Fredrik SwahnとスウェーデンのプログレバンドDungenのメンバー、Reine Fiskeという3人が本作のプロデューサーとして名を連ねている。
また、クラシックやジャズの素養を備えたマルチ・プレイヤーのJosefin Runsteenがいくつかの楽曲でストリングスを担当し、同じくジャズ・ドラマーのMoussa Faderaも参加している。
『Emotional Eternal』はまず初めにストックホルム近郊にあるスウェーデンの森で録音されたという。

The second Melodys Echo Chamber album, Bon Voyage, was a tour de force of intense psychedelic pop underpinned by dramatic shifts in tone and tempo, unhinged vocals, and an endless supply of surprises. It was borne during a turbulent time in Melody Prochets life; it felt like enough of a chapter-closing event that after its release she turned her back on music for years. When she was ready to embrace it, her cohorts from Bon Voyage -- Reine Fisk of Dungen and the Amazings Fredrik Swahn -- were ready to join up again. Working together as in the past, they craft something equally as impressive, immersive, and powerful on Emotional Eternal. Written from a place of warmth and peace, the album is comforting and pure, and listening to it is akin to wringing out a dirty, depressed soul and washing it in pure sunshine. Prochets voice soars across the mix in clear tones that never veer off course over basslines that bubble like cool mountain brooks, guitars that chime, and strings that hum like a celestial choir. The trio mix in some new sounds, like the Turkish psych accents on "Pyramids in the Clouds," and smooth off the rough edges of Bon Voyage to uncover a sound thats as sweeping and soft as Air at their calmest, while still letting loads of real emotion bleed through. Prochets feelings are more inviting this time around, but they are still very strong and its near impossible to make it through most of the songs without stopping whatever one might be doing to really listen to what shes saying with the combination of words, sound, and melody. Its a heady mixture of the three and when they all combine at a high level, like on the utterly beautiful "Personal Message" or the album-closing heart-tuggingly happy "Alma the Voyage," its hard not to be swept away. Its a very different kind of album that comes from a different artistic impulse, and its to Prochets credit that she can transmit joy as impressively as she can despair. Bon Voyage was a kind of disjointed, disconnected masterpiece, Emotional Eternal is the flipside of the coin. Unified by acceptance and warmth, sung with wide-eyed, deep-down happiness, and played with a rich softness, its a thing of beauty and thats forever. ~ Tim Sendra

ケヴィン・パーカーが関与した初作で評判になったのが10年前のこと。この3作目でもM83やビーチ・ハウスを引き合いに出されるサイケデリックなドリーム・ポップの幻惑的な魅力は変わらない。ストックホルム近郊の森で録音を始めたそうで、クラシックやジャズの素養があるジョセフィン・ランスティーンがストリングスを担当したほか、ウラジミール・シャフラノフとの仕事で知られるジャズ・ドラマーのムッサ・ファデラも参加。
bounce (C)香椎 恵