RAIN ECLIPSE

'Rain Eclipse' - Senmuth (6/10)

Here is another exotic charge of world music from the one-man Russian project Senmuth. To anyone who hasn't heard the name before, Senmuth is an experimental music outlet that covers a great many styles of music over an even greater number of albums. With dozens of albums under his belt, it's undeniable that Senmuth has travelled quite a distance in terms of his music. While indeed a very talented individual verging on genius, alot of his music ends up a bit undercooked, as if he didn't take enough time to properly work it out. With that in mind, Senmuth's 'Rain Eclipse' is a rather pleasant surprise for this period in Senmuth's work. While the style is pretty similar to alot of the other work the man released in 2007, there is something here that lacked in the others of this sound; a sense of inspired composition.

The expected norm for an ethnic/ambient Senmuth album is to be pleasant, but a bit listless and meandering. For whatever reason, 'Rain Eclipse' instead turns out to have quite a bit more direction than it's contemporaries, although there are still certainly sections that revert back to the loose structure.

Most of the tracks have at least one memorable idea going for them, although some songs certainly have alot more going for them than others. The opener 'SamAdhAnam' might be my favourite; an exotic acoustic riff is played and repeated, with interspersed female vocal loops washing over the sound beautifully. The next track then proceeds to make things a bit more towering and 'heavy,' giving a heavily symphonic track that could easily a soundtrack for a film.

There are alot of guitar solos in 'Rain Eclipse,' which are used to mixed success. Some of the loose sections benefit well from Senmuth's melodic style of lead playing, but the soloing seems to deter from the already-solid sound of the structured pieces.

All in all, quite a good work in the overall scope of Senmuth's productions over the years. While Senmuth seems to have lulled me into the belief that his ethno/ambient work was a bit boring and listless, 'Rain Eclipse' proves that there is a great deal of potential for this particular sound to be used beautifully. If only it was a bit more consistent, 'Rain Eclipse' could possibly rank among Senmuth's best work.

It's possible that I'm now so used to the Senmuth's sound that every thing he does sounds good to me. This is another album inside his huge production that I really enjoyed. As many of its predecessors it has basically an ethnic Indian flavour, but differently from meditative works like Internal Images, there is a touch of his harder side. Not the industrial metal of the first albums. Just some more drums and guitars than usual in this kind of ethnic works.

"Sam Adh Anam" is a very good opener built on just seven repetitive notes over a hammering bass with an acoustic "guitar" (With Senmuth you can't know if it's an instrument or it's synhtetic). There's a guest vocalist but the site doesn't say who she is. This track is hypnotic and I like listening to it more than once at a time...(the third consecutive time while I'm writing).

"Tat Tvam Asi" is a vedantic sentence ("That You Are"). It's about Brahmanism. The tempo is slow even if there's a lot of percussions. A decent guitar work occupies most of the foreground. Another good track but less convincing than the first.

"Astrotribe 851 C" (whatever it means) starts with percussions and a spacey keyboard but after 30 seconds it's on the Gange river's banks again. Just one minute of indian music and the keyboard becomes symphonic, just to go back to ethnic then it's guiar for a while. This alternance of situations permeates the whole album. The symphonic parts of this track are very nice.

"Seasons of Rain In Mekhong" gives what promises. An evocative track with a rainy background and long dark keyboard notes with some classical flavour.

The "Tsangpo" river flows from the South Tibet and generates a canyon.Local were used to cross it on boats called "gowas". Search for images of this river and watch them while listening. Tibetan bells, ethnic instruments and percussions. Does anybody remember Tomb Raider 2 (the videogame)? It gives me similar sensations.

"Dhanvacara" (I didn't find any translation) is another Indian based track but the keyboards in the background during the first half of the track are very dark.

"Noosphere" is the "sphere of human thougths", the collective consciousness. Give a look to noosphere.princeton.edu From a musical point of view this track is quite similar to the opener. Sometimes it can remind to JM Jarre.

"Nyanza" is a lake and a Kenyan district. This track has a lot of percussions and an African flavour, but in the rhythm only. The melody, if it can be called this way, is typical Senmuth's stuff. I think Senmuth succeeds very well in transmitting a sense of mistery and esotherism.

"Svapna Avastha" means "State of Dreaming". The Encyclopedia of Hinduism says "when the senses are at rest, there is the manifestation of the knower and the known". This is what the western culture calls "hypnagogic". Listen to this track, specially the parts with the guest vocalist. Knowing what is in the author's mind helps in entering into the music.

Respect to the "ethnic only" works, on this album there's a fusion with the metal elements. The album is neither one or the other thing, but I rate it 4 stars.