Wind
and
Wire
While this is the last album in a musical trilogy (the first two in the series were Automaton, followed by Binfen), Culduz is my first exposure to Turkish (now residing in Austria) musician Murat Ses' work. And boy, am I impressed! I had read people rave about this man's music on various internet postings through the years. I finally understand what all the talk was about. This is exciting, unique and expertly crafted electronic music. It seamlessly blends an exotic world/ethnic flavor with state of the art keyboards and samplers to produce a recording which, truthfully, I can't compare to anything else in my collection. There is a "story" to this album, it's the tale of Piri Reis, a legendary seaman (the album's subtitle is "Piri Reis - Kaptan-i Acun"). Since I know next to nothing about this man and very little of world history in this particular region, I'm at a complete loss to interpret this recording as a musical reflection of this person or his time. But, I can judge the album musically from a subjective standpoint with ease. It's excellent! Opening with the bouncy "Humbaba" with midtempo snare and tom-toms beating out a rhythm beneath a cheery bell-like melody (buoyed by flowing keyboards as well), Culduz is off to a great start. The bell tones ring forth while those synths cruise underneath it and the kinetic beats drive the cut at a perfect "driving music" pace. The next song, "Ulug Bey" is more exotic, using what sounds like a didgeridoo sample and a delicious wailing synth. Pounding piano/harpsichord and metronome-like rhythms give the cut an urgency and insistence, even while a wistful whistling tone lends an air of mystery. By my second hearing (hell, maybe even after my first), I was amazed at how varied and interesting Murat's various keyboards are. This is a special album, unique as all get out and fresher than a lot of what I've heard in the last year. The best comparison I can make (not from a same-sound standpoint but from a similar ground-breaking approach to melodies, instruments and rhythms) is to Andrew Kennedy's polyrhythmic masterpiece, Distant Landscapes. Both Murat and Andrew refuse to walk the normal musical path and they both are individually creative in their compositional abilities. A frustration of music that's this good, yet also this different from the norm, is how hard it is accurately describe it. "Barbarosa" has a lilting bell/chime-like quality, but is married to a pulsing bass beat. This mixture of deep rhythms and almost ethereal melodies is something to savor, so I'd recommend headphones to reap every last ounce of enjoyment from this song, as well as the rest of Culduz. The propulsive drums of "Azimuth" provide a kinetic backdrop for exotic keyboards that have an air of Central Asia to them. "Indian Ocean" is an even more pulsing song, featuring a mixture of synthetic water-droplet sounds and whistling keyboards and a series of drums that beat out a fast tempo cadence. "Peri Reis (Kaptan-i Acun)" is a spacy trip into layer upon layer of mysterious synths, sounding a tad retro at times (in a good way) with what may be analog keyboards predominating. Before the song ends, thundering timpani veer the song from spacemusic into Arkenstone/Buffett-like cinematic soundscape territory. The title cut is another quasi-space voyage, combining washes of keyboards with twinkling synth notes. There is even a touch of electronica on the final cut, "Seven Seas," featuring the sound of waves, spacy bloops and bleeps, and a moderate tempo dancy rhythm riding under it all. Organ-like keyboards carry the refrain and a "sonar" echo sends its tone out into the emptiness. The song is an appropriately adventurous end to an equally thrilling album. Discovering an artist as talented and as singular as Murat Ses is always a thrill. As a reviewer who hears hundreds of recordings a year, when something as fresh as Culduz comes along, I can't sing its praises loud enough. If you have any love for rhythmic electronic music, whether it be Berlin-school or one of the other subgenres, I hope you'll give Murat's music a listen. This is damn good stuff! You'll be thanking me afterwards - if you have any sense of adventure that is! review by Bill Binkelman |