Artist : Amiina
Album : The Lighthouse Project
Year : 2013
Genre : Instrumental
Quality : 202kbps / 44.1KHz / Joint Stereo
Source : CD
Playtime : 0h 21m
Size : 34.33mb
Label : aminamusik ehf
Catalognr : amiina 06
Tracklist:
01. Perth 3:59
02. Hilli (Lighthouse Version) 3:08
03. Biolagio 4:34
04. Leather And Lace 4:04
05. Kola (Lighthouse Version) 5:15
06. N65░16,21 W13░34,49 0:57
Releasenotes:
If a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound, and if one sits alone in
one's room griping about having no friends, does it make one any less annoying?
Or if an object is deliberately positioned in a gallery by an artist, does it
make it art when outside it might be considered just another object? There are
no real answers to these questions, but here's one we can attempt to answer.
Does music sound that much sweeter when it's played in a beautiful location?
The answer is probably no, not recorded sound anyway. It would depend on an
endless number of permutations; how many players are playing, the quality of the
instruments and the recording equipment, the acoustics of the location - all of
these and many more would have to be factored in in order to delineate whether
or not a sound was more beautiful than another sound because of the structure it
was played in, presuming this was something you could scientifically prove in
the first place. Too much physics? Almost certainly.
amiina are not a group too concerned with nonsense like science. The Icelandic
troupe set out on a quest to play in lighthouses right across their native
country, after performing one show in one of these coastal monuments. An
audience member later exclaimed that he'd felt the group's music travel up
through the structure and out across the ocean as he'd stood atop it. It's an
image that captured the imaginations of the musicians, who then set out to play
their songs from as many towers of maritime navigation they could find,
projecting music into the ether where you'd usually find light.
It's a story that captivated among others, the late great Lee Hazlewood, who
performed aversion of his 'Leather And Lace' with amiina just weeks before he
died. An instrumental version of that track is found on The Lighthouse Project,
recorded last year, as a sort of centerpiece to the EP and no doubt as a tribute
to the great man. amiina are a group that grew by stealth, organically and you
suspect without crass ambition, beginning life when some girls from the
Reykjavik College of Music formed a four-piece string quartet. The group
enveloped permanent members Magn·s Trygvason Eliassen on drums and electronic
artist Kippi Kaninus in 2009, and they've been part of Sigur Ros' setup for some
time now. But it's on The Lighthouse Project that you feel the conceptual idea
and the aural reality have come together in a way that makes this album a
particularly special one. The sparsity of sound, decorated with warm chimes and
the diverting dalliances of a dreamy saw, take you to the pastoral splendour of
a magical faraway place as you listen to these recordings; though you can't
actually see the rugged roads, and the choppy waters and the bluey grey sky for
yourself, it's not difficult to imagine them if you close your eyes. To immerse
yourself in the back story and imagine these spine tingling songs being played
in a lonesome lighthouse off the shores of Iceland makes the experience an even
more enchanting, and dare I say, beautiful one. Even if it can't be proved.
Jeremy Allen
http://thequietus.com/articles/12858-amiina-the-lighthouse-project-review
http://www.amiina.com