“Intention is an album charmingly wild where Metcalf & Seelig lead the listener towards a territory full of transic meditation moods”
1 Intention 22:33
2 Surrender 9:47
3 Encounter 15:59
4 Focus 11:11
5 Vision 9:51
(CD 69:22) (V.F.)
(Tribal trance acoustic music)
Hoarse winds, guttural breezes and shamanic singings are bloating the atmospheres of the title-track which rests above all on tom-toms to tones of hollow skins. The magnetic flute of Mark Seelig rises and sings a strange ode to serenity while quite slowly, and this with a suave mix of drones filled of Dantesque flights of fancy, INTENTION gets inside our ears such as a fascinating and unreal incantatory procession. Byron Metcalf's percussions turn upside down an opening rather meditative with tom-toms which tumble down with violence and push the title-track towards a rhythm of fire. It's a race against the contemplativity with a furious rhythm, a little as a choreography of heathen dancing on a blazing fire, where the vocal drones and the shamanic psalms of Rob Thomas and Dashmesh Khalsa intensify an ambience of collective frenzy that Mark Seelig tries to calm with fluty chants which will remain the hostages of percussions and harsh voices. What a disconcerting, both for the rhythm and moods, introduction for this last Byron Metcalf's opus. For his last album, the master of clanic percussions and the native spiritual ambiences teams up with the diverse aboriginal flutes of Mark Seelig as well as the breezes and rocky voices of Rob Thomas, who were also present on Medicine Work, to create an album that is redefining the word trance.
Each of the 5 titles here is built on wild percussions and rhythms of dance fire. And the biggest of the delight pass exactly by these percussions from Byron Metcalf from which the frenzy is drawing bewilder rhythms that the flute of Seelig has difficulty in following. But she follows, be sure of that! One would say some helixes on Surrender. Helixes which swirl in a thick silk cloud, returning the knocks as so violent as so very attractive with a mesmerizing aerial approach. Didgeridoos and aboriginal singings draw pieces of vibes as intense as synths can do. But do not look for it! Everything is forged in the acoustic, even if sometimes we have electricity which bites the air. The effect of being in an EM world is really present. Encounter throws a veil of bewitchment with a slower rhythm where the percussions spit a rhythm of psychedelic trance a la Iron Butterfly in In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. The rhythm quavers and coughs with lines of didge and delicately jerky tribal singings, while the flute of Seelig makes diversion with a soft oniric approach. Focus is the most tribal track with a variety of percussions which bring down the hearing. Metcalf displays his immense talent by feeding the ear with rattlers/shakers and Udu percussions which always sparkle under a sonic sky stuffed of drones, chants of wizards and Bansuri flutes. A recurring pattern on INTENTION of which the concluding part proposes a clearly quieter and more hypnotic tempo.
Byron Metcalf always remains a musical experience which transcends the senses. His music is fascinating, bewitching and leads constantly the listener in search of meditation towards doors that only the imagination wants to open. It is necessary to hear beyond sounds and Byron Metcalf guides us there with no problem at all with an arsenal of percussions which divert the rhythmic laws. Making of INTENTION an album charmingly wild where the healer of the tormented souls brings them to a point of no return with aboriginal rhythms and meditative vibes which, if provide a kind of ecstasy and frenzy, make also possible this fascinating communion with some internal devils.
Sylvain Lupari (June 6th, 2014) *****
Available at Projekt Records Bandcamp