KAARANA

'KaaraNa' - Senmuth (6/10)

Seldom a man to drastically change his style, 'KaaraNa' is another one of Senmuth's albums that falls firmly within the region of his ethnic melange of sounds that's now fair to call his staple style. Collaborating once again with his longtime friend listed as Eresh, Senmuth mastermind Valery Av sits down to craft yet another ethnic voyage with this 'KaaraNa'. Although no far cry from what's been done in the past by Senmuth, this album is certainly quite a bit more enjoyable than the typical album Senmuth has done in this increasingly tired style, and through some more convention composition and thoughtful arrangement, Senmuth manages to create an album, of which it's positive traits outweigh the negatives.

Possibly the most pertinent thing about 'KaaraNa' that distinguishes it from the dozens of other albums Senmuth has written within a year of this one is the fact that it shows the man behind this music finally returning back to doing collaborations with some of his fellow musicians. While Senmuth is generally a project orchestrated by one man alone, his music always seemed to benefit from a little outside help. Here, Senmuth's friend only appears on two tracks; one as a drummer and the second reprising his regular role as a singer. Unfortunately, while Eresh is a very good singer and obviously a talented artist, his contribution is very minor, only adding some ambient vocalizations that wash into the mix, and some drumming that one could not tell was anything other than status quo, without the help of the credits.

In terms of the music itself, there's very little that I found very surprising here after having listened to many albums that sound very similar to this by the same artist. However, keeping that in mind, this one does pass off as a better release than many of the similar ethnic meanders, for the fact that the music feels as if it was actually composed, rather than just jammed out at a random pace. That being said, there is still not enough of a development in the somewhat unremarkable compositions to call it an excellent album.

A clean guitar played slowly on a non-dark base is the new respect to the usual ethno- ambient-indian music which Senmuth has made me used to. "Vasayati" is a nice track also from a melodic point of view, but "Ahamkara" appears to be just its prosecution as it's not much different from the previous, initially. However is another good track with enough major chords to be relaxing. A particularity of Senmuth is in the "Dark-Ambient" definition. Thinking to Ambient music one can imagine chill-out stuff. In general Senmuth's music is very dark and esotheric, instead, but not this time.

"Samaveta Asura" is full of square waves. If it wasn't for the flute and the sitar it could be Edgar Froese.

After a huge number of albums recorded alone, here there's the return of guests musicians. Eresh was already on Swadisthana if I remember correctly. His work with the percussions is not very evident. Just there are some "natural" percussions instead of sequenced rhythms as usual, but "Shaanti" is a hypnotic track, very repetitive and with a dreamy rhythm. It's quite a mantra.

"Sagarmatha" is darker and a distorted bass, likely a keyboard adds it a touch of metal. The melody is played by the sitar and feels "already listened". If not the same track, I think on Rha Di there's something very similar.

"Kamaloka" starts very Indo-Raga. Percussions and sitar work over a bass distorted chord and windy sounds. The result is another very hypnotic track but the enchantment is broken by the electric guitar which turns the song into the usual Senmuth. It's good, but the first part is better.

"Prajnanam Brahma" features mute vocals from Eresh. He sings over a base of sitar and electronics. It's a captivating song neither ethnic or metal. I consider it the highlight of this album.

"Indryas" is opened by violin and cello. Thinking to this track alone, as a Senmuth's newbie may do, it's good enough, but afgter having listened to more than 40 of his albums I can only say that this is the very "usual" one.

"Devasthan" reminds me to the Vangelis of "Direct" and "The City" but the melody is not as strong as the Greek artist is able to create. As in many Senmuth's songs it seems that the author wants to communicate a general sensation so that sometimes a real melody doesn't exist at all. The passages appear to be randomic and a structure becomes evident only after a number of listens.

This is an average album for Senmuth. I prefer his ambient side so I quite like it but it disappears into the sea of similar albums that he has released.