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JazzDigger Home > I - Jazz Artists > Mark Isham > Item 49
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We Begin
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by Mark Isham and Art Lande
Sales Rank: 241562
Price:$21.99
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Album Details
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1. The Melancholy Of Departure
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2. Cerermony In Starlight
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3. We Begin
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4. Lord Ananea
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5. Surface And Symbol
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6. Sweet Circle
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7. Fanfare
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Listener Reviews & Comments
The gentleman below is quite mistaken about the label this record is on. It's yet another of Manfred Eicher's ECM dreamworlds, rather than Windham Hill pap -- thus the gorgeous cover. First, the bad news: Lande and Isham must have both gotten synthesizers for Christmas in 1986, because there's an over-reliance on voicings that now sound dated -- as Elvis Costello said of one of his own albums once, "It has a bit of the Flavor-of-the Month to it." You can practically identify the brand, and the drum machine on the otherwise poignant "The Melancholy of Departure" sounds like a click track on a disco album. But oh, those melodies! This is an album of otherwordly splendor -- there's an uncannily *regal* quality to this music, as if Lande and Isham had written anthems for imaginary nations and monarchies. There's no other record quite like it -- it's like "magical realist" fiction turned into soundtracks of imaginary movies. There's a relentlessly melancholic and inward quality to this music, which can be a virtue (Nick Drake!). You might not feel happier after listening to it, but you'll feel like you've been taken somewhere. Lande -- a shockingly underrated genius -- is obsessed with circular figures here, with darkly brooding themes that don't unfold like typical melodies, but hover and forbode without resolution. "Fanfare" is literally disturbing: It's like the announcement of a new ascension to the throne in the depths of nuclear winter. Isham's horns are perfect for the timeless majesty of these landscapes. He thoroughly avoids Miles Davisesque blues pathos here -- the trumpets are as pregnant with doom as Lande's dark chords. In the middle of the gathering storm, "Sweet Circle" is as lovely a melody as Lande ever composed, played, thankfully, on solo piano. It sounds like something Bill Evans might have written had he survived into the ECM era. A great album, but not for those seeking hot-tub platitudes or a perky good time. Music to make love by it *isn't*.
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We Begin
by Mark Isham and Art Lande
Price:$21.99
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