Afterpoem

Faten Kanaanの5枚目のアルバム『Afterpoem』は、ミステリアスで不鮮明、そして、ほろ苦く、ユニークな遊び心に満ちたアルバムです。
モダン・ミニマリズムやアーリー・ミュージック/バロックの影響を受けた反復的な構造から、より物憂げなテクスチャーの干満まで、彼女は温かみを持ってエレクトロニック・インストゥルメンツを使い、アルバムに不思議と時代を超えた感覚を与えている。直感的に作曲する彼女の音楽は、しばしば「奇妙」と表現されるが、その理由の多くは、簡単にカテゴライズできない独自の世界を作り出していることにある。「私は、言語としての音楽に喜びを見いだす。語られないものの中に潜在する可能性。
焦点が定まらないまま漂う意味。魂のような漂い。このアルバムはロマンティックでひたむきなアルバムだ。失われた場所や人々への憧れを持ちながら、優しさとユーモアで世界を見つめている」と彼女は語る。

At the start of Afterpoem, the fifth album from New York minimalist composer Faten Kanaan, the listener is immediately dropped into a disorienting synth loop that resembles a curious rain cloud, washing down a dark street before moving on out of sight. There is rarely a definable beginning or end to her cyclical pieces; each one feels like a pre-existing scene occurring behind a veil through which we only catch brief glimpses. Its a marvelous effect, creating a liminal world that is neither past, present, nor future. Despite its ethereal nature, it is not some sort of hushed, ambient work to sit demurely in the background. Far from it. Kanaans songs are active, mysterious, fierce, and even playful. Arriving three years after the similarly mesmerizing though more opulent A Mythology of Circles, Afterpoem is a delight of shape-shifting melodies and enchanting transitions. The radiant organ figures of "Florin Court" soon find gravity, leading down an unexpected path before abruptly giving way to the watery half-minute dance of "Snowing." Another highlight is "Votive," with its rolling percussive gait and spectral choir of sampled voices that resembles Vangelis or young Enyas more haunted moments. Then there is the spidery "Castling," a nimble harp-like interlude played, like all of Kanaans music, manually without aid of sequencers, arpeggiators, or -- from the sound of its rhythmic fluctuations -- a click track. All of this gives her music, even at its iciest, a textured sense of warmth and a beating heart that is sometimes absent in electronically composed music. Described by the artist as referring to the "haze of a poems intended meaning being abstractly fleeting and barely graspable," Afterpoem is surprisingly thrilling and wholly original. ~ Timothy Monger