PRICE:
$15.50
IN STOCK
ARTIST
TITLE
Kajak
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
MORR 074CD MORR 074CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
5/22/2007

The sounds and texts for Benni Hemm Hemm's second album Kajak were written within a few, concentrated weeks. The recordings in Sundlaugin, the studio of Sigur Rós, were also done within only four days. During four magical days, 11 musicians recorded 13 vibrating tracks with kettle drums and trumpets, with guitars, trombones and a glockenspiel. Emotionally, energetically, emphatically. According to the pulsating way these songs come out of the loudspeakers, these stories wanted to be told. Still on board: the emphatic wind section of Northern Soul, the whirling enthusiasm of dance music. What is new on Kajak is a dramaturgical balance, a giving and taking, especially among single tracks. With Kajak, Benedik H. Hermannsson, the passionate narrator and cunning entertainer, became a well-versed arranger, as well. "Sorgartár" is situated close to the ocean. A surging and swelling, a ride on the wave's crest, constructed of a wind section, organs and one baritone guitar. "Regngalsinn" is an abstract love poem. Birds twitter, everything in the garden is lovely. One could call it a power-ballad if power-ballads didn't have such a bad reputation. "Mónakó" is an absurd song with three singing-tracks overlapping each other. "Egísa," finally, is a slow stroll out of the album into the sunshine. The sun is low in the sky and makes us squint.