(courtesy of my girl)
for some days i was feeling tired, saturated, jaded i would say. with the sensation that everything repeated itself, nothing surprised me, it all sounded the same. 'it must be january' i kept telling myself. the month after the previous year balance when one's immersed in the voragine of listening to albums and songs in order to evaluate 2016 in its entirety. and always, and i hope it never abandons me, there is a hope, a sign, a light that comes through. in life, in feelings and in music.
absorbed in professional tasks i found some space to hit play to an album from a london label that i love: Phantasy. the title and the artist were also suggestive. Ancient M'ocean and Babe, (yes, comma, don't omit it) Terror. that was how in few seconds i entered a world so strangely bizarre - and by that i mean splendid, not weird - as fantastically alien.
i can imagine the look on my friends' faces if one day i show up at their home for dinner and tell them 'listen to this'. some of them may kick me out, others ask if i have taken something strange or if i am out of my mind. but believe me it's a matter of insisting if at first it doesn't enter your mind.
the world of Babe, Terror is as enchanting as it is frightening. it's a trip through sonic highways that come and go, layers of neverending repetition, martian 'loops' and 'samples'. a whole chaos of sound that marvels, belittles, and finally liberates you. an inspiring and fascinating musical experience.
who's behind the old ocean of Babe, Terror? if you like football and i tell you that he is a fan of Palmeiras, you already know where he came from. if you aren't then listen to his album before researching the origin of it's author, you would be surprised to know that he is a brazilian from Sao Paulo called Claudio Szynkier. when listening to his music the brazilian tropics do not work, though bearing the voragine of his city in mind some things match.
Claudio Szynkier says he has grown up hallucinated by the record Selling England by the Pound by Genesis and that he likes calling his music 'Wrong Dance Music'. from his small computer store in Sao Paulo, Claudio has created a surprising work where his internal world emerges in confused waves that he wanted to accompany with a comic. so his album comes with a comic illustrated by Michael Crook. a perfect mix to travel with all your senses set.
in Babe, Terror's ocean you enter surfing (Windsurf for Souls I) and arrive happily at home (Forever Home). while navigating through it you get to know places with mind-bending names (Lunairel, Allureon, Kosminen Flate or Fryffordd), you can hear beneath the surface sweet pianos, disturbing voices (Claudio admits some of them came out from old cartoons that he heard on tv) or delicious trumpets.