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Это очень качественная, сложная, приятная музыка.
С трудом удерживаешься от наивных восторгов, охов и ахов,
и стараешься быть максимально объективным.
Как ни странно, мало что известно об этой группе —
в сети практически нет упоминаний о B-Tribe.
Кто эти люди, сколько их, какое оборудование они используют…
Просто хочется слушать эту музыку, даже оставаясь в неведении о ее создателях.
О чем упомянуть?
О том, что это обработки испанских песен?
Или о восхитительном эмбиентном фоне, который, хотя и
является лишь фоном, но сам по себе достоин отдельного альбома…
В этих произведениях все прекрасно. Мелодии, сыгранные на испанских гитарах,
отлично обработанные кастаньеты и деревянная перкуссия, интересные
электронные эффекты (которыми не злоупотребляют, уделяя главное внимание
живым инструментам), великолепный мужской и женский вокал… Как ни странно,
музыка на этих альбомах далеко не быстрая, напротив, она очень размеренная.
Но в то же время, очень страстная… Замершая страсть. Застывший
огонь…
Отдельных слов заслуживает фон. Прекрасный глубокий эмбиент, навевающий
очень странную, завораживающую атмосферу, обилие каких-то скрипов, птичьи трели…
Треки плавно перетекают один в другой, стремительно сменяются звуковые
ландшафты — от леса с птичьим щебетом и стрекотом
кузнечиков, до пляжа с шумом прибоя и криками играющих детей.
Каждая песня — это шедевр с неповторимым настроением и
прекрасной мелодией. Tribute to J.S. Bach, Sensual-Sensual, Allegria,
Ultima Cansion… Надолго оставляют в оцепенении.
Альбомы обладает удивительным свойством — они не надоедают.
В них можно погрузится с головой, а можно слушать как фон…
Это открытая ветру равнина, или океан в сумерки, или пылающее солнце пустыни,
или тысяча других живописных картин.
Это - музыка как настроение. Это - настроение как музыка.
Это - любовь и смерть и возрождение.
Это - B-Tribe…
B-Tribe
Dramatic Flamenco guitar, ambient synthesizer tonalities, and moody, wordless vocals evoke a windswept plain, or the ocean at dusk, or the burning desert sun, or a thousand other tableaus of the imagination. It's music as mood. Mood as music. It's love and death and renewal and redemption. It's the aural atmosphere that will soon be providing the soundtrack to your life. It is B-Tribe.
For those who are into labels, you can call it Flamenco meets New Age meets Dance grooves. But that's just a starting point of identification. It's more telling to speak of sonic colours and textures, of organic vibrations and sensations. Ultimately, what makes this sound so emotionally accessible is that's it's based, quite simply, on the rhythms of life.
B-Tribe is the brainchild of forward-thinking musician/producer/visionary The Brave, a native of Germany, habitant of Ibiza and citizen of planet groove. Incarnated several years and recordings ago (Fiesta Fatal!, Suave Suave, Sensual Sensual), B-Tribe makes its triumphant Higher Octave debut with its most accomplished CD yet, Spiritual Spiritual. With a new label and a new recording, B-Tribe is poised to significantly expand on its already impressive fan base (over 300,000 units sold), built mostly through word-of-mouth buzz generated by music fans hungry for a new kind of sound.
"I think that the normal Pop spectrum has reached an end of a line," states The Brave, "which is why people are embracing this kind of mood music. It satisfies a basic human need to lift the spirit. It's hinged on a connection to an inner peace. It's about something stronger than the kinds of phoney, plastic things Western civilization has to offer." Credit The Brave, who, in addition to writing the bulk of the material, also mixes all the elements with a wizard's touch.
In fact, the publicity-shy genius has always possessed a special affinity for communicating in direct musical terms, even in childhood. "The first money I earned was by playing trumpet at funerals," recalls The Brave, who began playing piano at seven and trumpet the following year. "I was a 12-year-old kid and made a fortune playing chorales at funeral services."
The Brave was the scion of a prominent Heidleberg family that had high hopes he would follow a traditional calling. He dutifully embarked upon a career in academia, but this was merely a pretext for his ardent musical pursuits. "In Germany, you just don't work in the entertainment industry," he says. "It's looked down on as being-semi-serious."
As the 1980s dawned, The Brave plunged headlong into song writing and producing tracks for the likes of Chaka Khan and several million-selling European artists. But commercial success failed to satisfy a deeper creative need.
The Brave says simply: "I got fed up. I wanted to go another level." He promptly moved to the secluded island of Ibiza off the Spanish coast to recharge his emotional batteries, and to expand his musical and cultural horizons. It was here that he fell in love with the time-honoured sounds of Flamenco.
"It was completely new to me and offered me the opportunity for a fresh musical approach," he notes. He subsequently travelled the length and breadth of the Mediterranean to absorb, experience and record live Flamenco performances. Then he returned to Ibiza, and began synthesizing these recordings with his own studio efforts.
Sublime inspiration led him to combine traditional Flamenco sounds with modern Dance grooves and synth melodies, and the B-Tribe concept was born. Several albums followed, each ecstatically received by music fans and critics alike. The Brave had invigorated Flamenco, brought it up to date, and created a distinct and modem soul music. With each record, he refined the concept, made it deeper, more evocative. The culmination to date is Spiritual Spiritual.
Living on Ibiza provides The Brave with a source of constant inspiration, as well as a feeling that anything is possible. "I find a mixture of attitudes here. You have the beautiful people and you have the spiritual people who are into things like talking to the clouds and the sun and the moon. It's way ahead of the rest of the world. People are trying to walk on water, if you get my drift."
An apt metaphor, for the music of B-Tribe is like a refreshing oasis in a desert of musical mediocrity. With Spiritual Spiritual, B-Tribe is riding the crest of a wave that's washing away the dust of conformity that for too long has dominated the recording industry. Let's all get wet.
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| Track Listing:
- Intro (2.48)
- Adagio in G Minor (4.11)
- La Guitarra (4.28)
- Sketches of St. Antoni (4.52)
- Las Salinas (5.44)
- Spiritual Spiritual (6.55)
- Es Vedra (4.55)
- Matador De Sa Pena (5.33)
- Reprise: Spiritual 1.55)
- Sunset in St. Carlos (5.49)
- She Moves Through the Fair (5.00)
- The Sun (3.05)
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Released 8/01 on Higher Octave Music (USA). Licenced from Virgin Records.
The music on this CD is the antithesis of the pre-packaged, overproduced recordings that currently glut the market. And far from being a collection of independent tracks thrown together with scant regard for pacing, Spiritual Spiritual has a strong thematic feeling. It's best appreciated when listened to from beginning to end, by letting each track flow into the next, creating a seamless musical journey that takes you to beautiful and mysterious destinations.
"Intro" sketches the outlines of B-Tribe's current World-Beat aesthetic: starkly dramatic guitar, poignant vocals, limpid keyboard susurrations. In contrast to previous B-Tribe recordings, the energy is muted, yet the fire still smoulders with a beautiful darkness. A seamless segue leads into "Adagio in G-Minor," a heartfelt and stirring adaptation of this famous composition. Electronic keyboards carry the weight as the guitar dances in and around the theme.
The low-key mood continues on "La Guitarra," a beautiful lament full of repressed longing. The guitar playing (courtesy of several world-class musicians) is breathtaking, combining flawless technique with deep-in-the-pocket soul. Although The Brave refers to Spiritual Spiritual as directed more in an ambient direction than previous B-Tribe efforts, this is definitely not music that fades into the background. Even if your emotions connect with it on a subconscious level, your mind is directly engaged by its honesty and drama.
"Sketches of St. Anthony" has a strong spiritual feeling, and engulfs the listener like a gently flowing mountain stream. Mark Smith plays a lovely muted trumpet (with an almost Miles-like tone) over the laid- back keyboard/guitar framework. Although this track extends to nearly seven minutes, one is never conscious of time, so hypnotic is the mood. Another seamless transition sets up the wistful and romantic "Las Salinas," with its fleeting traces of Vladimir Cosma. The sensual vibe that informed earlier B-Tribe is much in evidence on this tune, although it never becomes overtly sexual.
The title track reveals the depth of The Brave's writing ability. He has a knack for creating deceptively simple melodies that, upon repeated hearings, reveal infinite harmonic tonalities and subtle rhythmic variations, even at slow tempos. "Sa Vedra" and "Matador De Sa Pena" are very much in this vein, with their exotic emotional coloration and their sense of gradually increasing momentum. And check out the cinematic vibe of "The Sun," with its haunting, Ennio Morricone-like melody. This is soul music, albeit of a variety you may not have experienced. It's not Jazz soul, but, if you will, organic soul.
Spiritual Spiritual is also about sound textures, about making the listener feel the sensations evoked by the music. Tracks like "Sunset in St. Carlos" and "She Moves Through the Fair" put you in the warmth of the Mediterranean sun, and make you feel the earth beneath your feet. When was the last time a piece of music gave you this kind of out-of-body experience?
Helping to take this music to such a high level is the astonishing clarity of the compact disc. This recording has an uncanny "live" sound that seems to leap out of your speakers. The guitar playing is full of warmth and presence, the keyboards never sound muddy, and the vocals are at once intimate and expansive. Credit The Brave, who, in addition to writing the bulk of the material, also mixes all the elements with a wizard's touch.
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