G.E.N.E.
Shalom - Spirit Of The Holy Land
This project consists of musical interpretations of locations in Israel which endeavour to absorb the different atmospherics and natural sounds into an aural travelogue, overseen and produced by I.C. luminary Michael Weisser.

Opening with my favourite cut, the upbeat 'Tel Aviv', the album gets off to a sound start with all the trademark production values we tend to associate with I.C. releases. Perhaps the voice samples are generally a little overdone, a few too many “shaloms” in the mix here for instance, but the bright rhythms, clear signal, and above all, the anthemic theme, are all more than good enough to engage the listener. 'En Gedt' is another strong piece with vibrant flute motif, bright guitar accompaniment, female voice and treatments which all work well enough, excepting a brief rather eccentric strangulated brass effect.

'Timna' changes the mood yet again and is a more restful track, but again utilises voice and ethnic treatments. 'lvlassada' is a more impressionistic vision with piano and more subliminal voice and ethnic intonations. 'Eillat' begins with diverse layers of percussion and keyboard sounds before another pristine, folky, flute melody makes its mark, whereas the exotic 'Qumran' would be the ideal soundtrack for a Turkish Delight advertisement.

Within its parameters, the music does evoke a wide range of atmospherics that highlights the Holy Land as a place of extremes: between water and desert: between sun and sand and between tradition and future. I found myself enjoying the album more when carefully sampling individual tracks as opposed to listening to the entire album in one sitting. Composers Cleo de Mallio and Stephan Toeteberg have written good material here and the quality holds up well throughout the set. If you enjoy ethnically inspired, varied music with melodic sensibility then this could be for you. The music seemingly improves with every play and generally travels well. Shalom. (SR)

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