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review by Bill Binkelman Here's an intriguing album comprised of both instrumental and a few vocal tracks. Jo Gabriel plays piano, electric guitar, and keyboard samples and is possessed of a singing voice that reminds me of a combination of Joni Mitchell and Tori Amos; she has that combination of raw human emotion and a multi-octave range that either appeals to a person or doesn't. I doubt that anyone who hears her on the several vocal tracks will have a neutral reaction. Myself, I found her style intensely intimate and well-suited for integration with the somber and minimal piano-driven instrumental songs. Somber is a perfect choice to describe the whole of The Unreachable Sky. Even when the music drives forward with purpose at a fast pace (such as on the rapid piano runs of "Tinderbox Waltz"), the preponderance of minor tone melodies evokes gray skies, bitter remembrance, and even naked pain. However, this is not the elegant neo-chamber music of Tim Story. There is an urgency and a pleading quality to many of the pieces here, and I'd recommend against playing this as background music. It warrants your full attention (and, in fact, as background music, it suffers by comparison). While some songs feature prominent use of sampled instruments, Gabriel's piano is far and away the main attraction here, and she has the chops to make it worthwhile listening. If you usually find "new age" music piano to be too sweet and undemanding, you won't have that reaction here, trust me. Yet, seldom is The Unreachable Sky inaccessible or abrasive. Unconventional, yes, but not overly formidable. Gabriel does share Tim Story's idiosyncratic approach to titling songs; witness selections such as "Turbulent Silence" (somber reflective echoed piano), "Spill" (echoed piano played against an enveloping droning wall of strummed electric guitar and twinkling tones before submerging into a quiet swell of subdued drones), "Be My Deity" (lower register string ensembles coursing under solo piano), and the album closer "If Not" (minor key Harold Budd-like treated piano with drone undercurrents and sparse vocals). Regarding the vocal tracks' lyrics, since they are not included and, as is my wont, I am too lazy to decipher them, I won't comment on them except to tell you that they are closer to poetry than to pop music, so be assured you won't hear a lot of "Baby, baby, baby" anywhere on this album! To my ears, the mix on this CD could be cleared up a bit, although I wonder if this muddiness is intentional and contributes to the mood of the songs. Even given that, though, the piano could have used better mic'ing, in my opinion. I also think that eighteen songs is a lot of territory to cover, even when some tracks are only between one and two minutes long; some songs begged for more development while others seemed like throwaways. On the whole, though, The Unreachable Sky is worthwhile if you enjoy moody piano music, along with some sampled keyboards (mostly strings) and a few vocal tracks here and there. I don't know that you could classify this as ambient music, and it sure isn't new age or adult contemporary. In some ways, it cleaves closer to neo-classical, especially with how Gabriel plays her piano (her technique really is quite good). There are also some avant garde elements and a bit of Projekt-type goth/shoegazer mixed in there as well. While nowhere near as depressing as the recordings from Projekt (such as those from Black Tape for a Blue Girl), this is still not the CD you would reach for is you just won the lottery. But, the world needs sad, even tragic, music too. After all, if the sky is unreachable, we can't be expected to be happy, can we? |
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