TS'AHK

It was impossible that an artist so interested about ancient peoples and their hidden knowledges could have ignored the Maya calendar in 2012. It's not the first time that Senmuth explores the central and South America, anyway.

The album starts with "931469 BC", I suppose is the year when the first big cycle began and it's a curios thing the fact that the birth of Mankind is dated more or less to 1 million year ago. This track is mainly made of ethnic percussion, a sort of pan flute and very little electronics in the end. It's like the beginning of a ritual, I can imagine a shaman and his followers around a fire in a forest or a cave. This is what this track transmits to me.

"5 Imix 9 Cumku" is a date. I don't know which one grab a Maya calendar and verify on your own...The music is slow and the percussion are not invasive. In the last years Senmuth has improved the melodies in the compositions, so even if his style is clearly recognizable, this song is tendentially symphonic with some of the usual ethnic interludes.

"Yax-K`Awiil" should be an ancient king represented on a picture in Palenque's temple. His name means something like "darkener of the sky". Of course it's a dark track, oniric and full of magic. Very atmospheric.

" Tok`Pakal" is a Maya hieroglyph that should mean "shield". The smooth tempo is the same on all the tracks until now. The final drum beats introduces "Taz Kaan". I haven't found any information about its meaning, but Ka'an was a Maya state. This track adds some electronic to the pan flute and the percussion. The guitar, heavily distorted provides the base minor chord on which the track is based. It comes and goes in an alternance of metal and ethnic ambient.

Soul, holiness, divinity, spirituality. Those are the meanings of the hieroglyph "K`uhul Ook". This is the base of the name of the God Kukulkan. I remember a writer making the hypothesis that Kukulkan is the Irish legendary hero Cu Culahinn who has travelled the Ocean. This is one of the darkest moments of the album, but the flute has a bit of Celtic, like that author has been read by Senmuth as well...

"Chak ek" is Venus. The Andes flavor pervades this track, even when percussion and pan flute leave room to electronic drums and heavy guitar. Technically speaking is the best album track even though the previous one hits some switch in my brain.

"Huxte Tuun" has to do with a location. a person from a specific place. The birth place of the dead impressed on his tombstone. Of course it's a dark track. The instruments are still the same, but the melody is completely absent. Borderline with ambient and progressive electronic.

Finally "Y-Ahal-Cab", Renewer of the Dawn, Wakener of the Land...the bells announce that somebody is coming. It's a celebration. It can't be too happy becaause the Maya were used to sacrifice men in their celebrations. However, this mey be the reason of the double mood of this final track. The closing flute plays almost alone, like it's giving a goodbye to the listener before few drum hits which suddenly close the album.

It's an ethno-ambient album, not too dark and not too uneasy. It meets my tastes, it good but doesn't have big highlights.

3 and half stars