ECHOES OF EDENSONG

My first exposure to Edensong came in a flood of new material that was the Haiti Projekt. Released earlier this year, it contained 40 songs from 40 different bands and the proceeds were donated to help the people of Haiti after that tragic earthquake. As you can imagine, with that many songs by that many different bands, it was easy for many of them to sort of blur together for a number of listens. One of the immediate standouts, though, was an Edensong track called "Lorelai." Their name was instantly added to my "groups to check out" list. When I heard their latest release, Echoes of Edensong, I have to confess I was at first put off by how different the other five tracks on this almost-album/almost-EP were from "Lorelai," (which is also included on the release). Not that I expected them to all be the same, but the light touch of the orchestration in the very mellow, almost dream-like "Lorelai" makes the more hard-hitting nature of songs like "Beneath the Tide" and "To See but not Believe" sound like they were done by a totally different, but equally good band. But that's the great thing about this kind of music, isn't it?

The opener of the album is "Beneath the Tide," and after giving it a few listens to get used to its various arrangement quirks, I think it's an amazing tune. An album's worth of great musical ideas packed into ten minutes, and it all seems to work. "Beneath the Tide" and "Lorelai" make Echoes of Edensong a worthwhile investment on their own.

The third track, "To See But Not Believe" has some great moments, as well. The recording quality of this song is a bit sharper than the first two, but the vocals don't seem quite strong enough to be as loud as they are in the mix.

The remaining three tracks are live cuts?including a live version of the album opener? recorded at various festivals the band has played over the past few years. The recording quality isn't top notch, which is explained in the on-liner notes, but it's not bad at all. The tracks reveal that Edensong is a strong live act. (Random aside: I want credit for inventing the phrase "on-liner notes," which is when, instead of including credits with the album artwork, everything is put up on a website.) Again, I think the vocals aren't as strong as they could be, but the playing, for the most part, is spot on.

Echoes of Edensong is not only, as it is billed in the credits, a snack to tide-over existing fans until the next full release, but also it's a great introduction to the band. Definitely a rewarding listen.