FOVEA HEX

The band records on Wilson's record label. Both Wilson and Fripp contribute guitars on this EP, which is very atmospheric and beautiful. Wilson also contributed treated bass. Their influences and styles are very much apparent on here too as the sound approaches the feel of Bass Communion and also some of Fripp's later music. Fovea Hex has also worked with Brian Eno in past projects. The band is listed under Progressive Electronic. The credit listing only shows traditional and contemporary instruments however, no synths, and the sound is very earthy, folkish and even ambient in some sections.

This is a very beautiful and low-key EP all the way through. Clodaugh's vocals are lovely and fit the music perfectly. It has a slightly Celtic vibe to it, but much more experimental and ambient than what you would expect from Celtic music. There are definitely a lot of treated or slightly processed sounds here, but they work to bring about the overall atmosphere of the music. It is somewhat minimalistic, but not boring in the least. Although it has that celtic vibe to it, it follows no traditional song pattern, and at times is free meter. So it is definitely progressive.

It's too bad it's so short, and it definitely does not wear out it's welcome with only 3 songs spanning about 25 minutes. This is a case where a person would want to get all 3 of the EPs to experience more of this music. The music line up changes and adapts to the feeling of each EP. Even as short of a statement as it is, it is still an excellent addition to any collection.

Fovea Hex, "The Salt Garden 1", 2016 is closer to Prog/Folk or Crossover, tops. This mentioned to set it someplace in PA's sub-genre's universe.

Some, outside of PA's reviewers, comment that Fovea Hex is a genre itself. Quiet daringly, I will add. There is an unexplainable attribute the Irish music scene beholds, that certainly sets them apart, yet holds them up together. This I comment because, even if I try, I can not detach Fovea Hex's music from its Irish roots. Of course there is no demerit in this, yet this holds back any kind of explosive groundbreaking experimental route that could possibly emerge along its direction.

This also comes to mind because Fovea Hex's music also reminds me of Enya's at some distant point, but oddly to Canadian Loreena Mckennitt's musical environments, who may well be included in these PA's archives if measured by the same rule and who in fact is far more daring, music composition wise speaking.

Anyway, beautifully performed and composed "Salt Garden 1", 4 tracks EP, is a dream like, short ride, to some peaceful lands which inhale sorrow and by contrast also exhale light. But above all, it keeps you hooked for more, which could explain the addition of the last track "SOLACE" in an extended Steven Wilson intervened and remixed version, in the limited, 2 cd edition, "not available" package.

****4 PA "EP" stars.

So as I mentioned in my Fovea Hex last review, this is not progressive electronic music as such. So Berlin School expectants, this is even less P/E than their previous compilation.

That established let me make some references to what to expect in this "HERE IS WHERE WE USED TO SING", 2010, release.

The characteristical melancholy of Irish music floats through the air, the ethereal quality of acoustic instruments is ever present and emphasized, so expect remarkable cello playing by the great Julia Kent (honorable guest in this effort) as John Contreras also on cello, alongside founder member Clodagh Simonds' piano and vocals with Cora Venus Lunny's violin threading bright and obcure ambients crossed between female singing and choruses, detailed by the again present Brian Eno and Colin Potter, accompanied here and there with Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo's guitar and Marco Schiavo's drums and percussions.

As far as making some kind of musical comparison I will think of Loreena McKennitt but stripped down to less baroque terms, a much less sugarly coated Enya, tainted with the detached, obscure and sad atmospheres of "Love Is Colder Than Death" or "Black Tape for a Blue Girl" or the closer to prog "No Man" and the ever present "This Mortal Coil's" mutability of personnel and "darkness" in musical language and intention.

****4 PA stars.

"Fovea Hex" a.k.a. Clodagh Simonds (with Laura Sheeran on supporting vocals) an Irish experimental project band is a very well kept secret, so it seems, here in PA. So lucky us electronic enthusiasts this project/band was set here in this prog category.

Anyway, quiet strange that this Fovea Hex "Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent", 2010, a compilation consisting of three earlier individual EPs "Bloom"-2005, "Huge",-2006 and "Allure"-2007, which were put up in a single cd and adapted time wise, has gone unnoticed.

Strange because it features top of the game guests in this prog universe. Therefore to push this crossover/electronic project into any kind of thirsty prog throat, I, inevitably, will reveal the list of honorable guests. Michael Begg, Carter Burwell, Roger Doyle, Brian Eno, Roger Eno, Robert Fripp, Percy Jones, Cora Venus Lunny, Donal Lunny, Andrew Mckenzie, Sarah McQuaid, Hugh O'Neill, Colin Potter, Lydia Sasse and this page's prodigal son Steven Wilson. How is that for a party?

Music wise, as I mentioned, this is just too ethereal, cosmic, obscure and experimental to be called folk even prog's one, unless we are talking about an alternate habitable planet somewhere in a parallel universe where there is a folk/band from a place named surprisingly also Ireland.

If I really need to mention that this release is not just flawless and ground breaking music composition wise, but that involving not only extraordinary musicians, some of them are also 1st class high tech sound engineers, as you will obviously have deducted from this master musicians guest list, therefore it sounds like a sound engineer's heaven.

*****5 PA stars, at least!