BLEEDING

Transport Aerian's 'Bleeding' is the solo project of a young belgian multi-instrumentalist, known as Hamlet. Just like in the cult fantastic movie of 1962 "Carnival Of Souls", where the main character wanders from the world of the living to the world of the dead, we have the feeling, when listening to the album, to step from a reassuring universe to another one that sounds much more frigthening. The first owes a lot to a beautiful clean voice akin to the "Less Is More" style of Mariusz Duda (on "Score" for example). At times, the timbre is more unexpectedly closer to Scorpions' Klaus Meine (it is blatant on "Nightsky" for example). This "first world" is also embodied by cozy ambiances borne by a somewhat light piano, a vaporous flute ("Inspire"), aquatic guitar licks ("Score", "Nightsky" and "Winter"), some lazy cymbals (weaving the canvas for the spacey world of "Triangle Town"), and last but not least the always appropriately brought in silences. The second world is represented by a chant either angry in a hardcore vein ("Mortals") or haunting in the spirit of Nick Cave ("Fog Vision", "Edges"). Drums are slow in this other world, guitars sound threatening, distorted or weeping ("Love") and keyboards (be it piano, or Rhodes, or Dulcimer samples) quite frightening. On a musical level, we are close to the dark world of Nick Cave or Diamanda Galas, with hints of Neurosis-like post-hardcore here and there. Notes of dry "tribal-ambient" jazz in the line of Torn Karn Bozzio project, and echoes of movie soundtracks, from the piano notes of Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" to the haunting musical landscapes of David Lynch's movies, also spangle the album. Guitars, on the other side, can be dyed with the colors of Arto Lindsay's no- wave, or wander in the meditative and weeping garden of Robert Fripp, or even burst into the excessive "wah wah" whirlwind of The Cure's "The Kiss" ("Mortals" and the closing section of "Edges"). Very personal and highly original work, "Bleeding" should satisfy all music-lovers looking for versatility and unusual atmospheres. Noteworthy, the band was recently signed to the Melodic Revolution Records label and a remastered version of the album is now available.