Karmamoi - Strings From The Edge Of Sound - 2023
“..a symphonic cinematic prog album ...”
intro
"Strings from the Edge of Sound", the new album of the Italian band Karmamoi, contains 67 minutes of music; four new songs plus five songs from previous albums which have been rearranged and revisited for orchestra. According to Daniele Giovannoni, the man behind Karmamoi, an ambitious project and the biggest challenge Karmamoi has ever faced. A new vision of Karmamoi's music. The final result is impressive, a powerful, symphonic and cinematic album.
Daniele Giovannoni - drums, keyboards, backing vocals; Valerio Sgargi - vocal, backing vocals, keyboards; Alex Massari - guitars; Alessandro Cefali - bass
"Orchestra" arranged by Emilio Merone
review
If you know the previous two Karmamoi releases "Room 101" and "The Day Is Done", then you are in for a big surprise. With "Strings From The Edge Of Sound" the band has developed a new and powerful sound by orchestrating their own music. In addition to the four new songs; "Black Hole Era", "Tell Me", "I Will Come In Your Arms" and "Strings From The Edge Of Sound", this album contains two songs each from "Room 101" ("Room 101", "Zealous Man") and "The Day Is Done" ("Take Me Home", "Your Name") and the song "Nashira" from the album "Silence Between Sounds"" which have been rearranged and orchestrated.
Daniele Giovannoni told me that he and Valerio Sgargi wrote the new arrangements and then entrusted them to Emilio Merone to develop and improve them. They worked closely together and treated the old songs as if they were new songs to give them new lifeblood. And they have succeeded well in that, the surprising end result is impressive.
When I listened to the album for the first time, without reading the information sheet first, I was blown away by this new orchestral version of Karmamoi. Besides the orchestration, there is another difference with the previous two albums. The female vocals (Sara Rinaldi) have disappeared and Valerio Sgargi takes care of all vocals. And he convinced me by his strong contribution in that area. Just listen to the opening track, the new song "Black Hole Era". His slow delivery and the structure of the song in the first part, together with the atmospheric orchestration, remind me slightly of the music of Anathema in their "Weather Systems" period. In the last part we hear beautiful drumming and wonderfully melodic electric guitar work. A fantastic opener.
"Nashira" from the album "Silence Between Sounds" is the first old song on this album that has a new arrangement and orchestration. It opens with delicate piano playing, strings (cello) and subdued singing before the tempo increases, the music becomes more powerful and the strings swell. Due to the changes in rhythm and intensity, the song has the necessary variation. In the last part we can again enjoy beautiful guitar work (acoustic and electric). You can hear that a lot of time has been put into arranging, programming and orchestrating the songs for this album. The orchestral arrangements turned out very well. "Take Me Home" is originally a song from the "The Day Is Done" album and was sung by Sara Rinaldi. On this new version it is sung by Valerio Sgargi and the opening is even slower and more exciting than the original. The orchestration has given it even more detail. The intensity of the music is increased very slowly, very nicely done. Through beautiful melody lines "Tell Me", the second new composition, Valerio Sgargi clearly demonstrates his qualities as a singer. It is a beautiful quiet song with a beautiful melodic guitar solo at the end in the style of Kalle Wallner, the guitarist of the German band RPWL.
Then it's time for the orchestral version of the title track of the album "Room 101". The quiet opening with the acoustic guitar (why do I have to think of Genesis?) and the sparse orchestration that becomes increasingly opulent is really beautiful. Halfway through the song the intensity drops completely and the intensity is built up again with the most beautiful vocal melodies and a wonderful guitar solo. This little trick (building back up the intensity to a climax) is repeated one more time. The strength of these orchestral versions is that the old songs were arranged as if they were new songs. In this case, this meant that the song is barely recognizable at certain points, but has become much stronger and more varied. "I Will Come In Your Dreams" is another new composition. The song has a quiet structure with delicately sung vocals. At first accompanied only with strings and piano. Towards the end the orchestration becomes more lush and builds towards a climax. This song has a strong cinematic character.
"Your Name" is originally a song from "The Day Is Done". And actually this was a song that required orchestration. A song with many variations and rhythm changes. The progressive vibe in the complex middle section has been preserved, but the last section in particular with the quiet structure and vocals is ideal for a more classical approach. I think the distortion of the voice is a little less successful, but the melodic guitar solo at the end remains.
Of course the longest song on the album "Room 101" could not be missed, "Zealous Man" has even become a minute longer and is also the longest song on this new album at almost 12 minutes. It has a quiet structure with some delicate piano playing at first. Later the vocals and acoustic guitar are added before a lush orchestration is added and the music becomes more powerful with full keyboards, drums and guitars. These passages alternate with quiet and more Neo-Classical parts. The parts with full orchestration, melodic electric guitar and wonderful rhythm section are highlights of this remarkable and surprising album. This album comes to an end with the short title track "Strings From The Edge Of Sound", which is a kind of reprise of the opening track "Black Hole Era".
conclusion
"Strings From The Edge Of Sound", the new album by Karmamoi is a remarkable and surprising album for many who already knew the band's music. Personally, I am positively surprised by the new arrangements and orchestrations that take the existing compositions to an even higher level. But of course it depends on how open minded you are as a listener to really appreciate it. As a fan of progressive rock, I have always been interested in other music styles. So I also enjoy listening to classical music, Neo-classical, jazz fusion, soundtracks and world music. The album sounds like a consistent whole even though it contains older songs. This is due to the approach to the arrangements, the band has approached the older songs as new songs. So this has worked well. In addition to Daniele Giovannoni and Valerio Sgargi who are responsible for the music, arrangements and production, Emilio Merone is also listed as the man in charge of the orchestra's arrangements. We should not underestimate this, he has done a fantastic job. As mentioned previously; Daniele Giovannoni told me that he and Valerio Sgargi wrote the new arrangements and then entrusted them to Emilio Merone to develop and improve them. They worked closely together and treated the old songs as if they were new songs to give them new lifeblood. And they have succeeded well in that, the surprising end result is impressive. In the words of the band itself "Music Is A Journey" so open your mind and enjoy the music.