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HAPNA 036CD
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This is the third and final album in the A Taste of Ra trilogy. Nicolai Dunger, and the cloak of mystery behind the Taste of Ra project has captivated many with its various incarnations of free-folk meanderings, Tim Buckley jazz-howl and Swedish pastoral indie-hum. Dunger describes Morning of My Life as follows: "When we moved to the tent and the light was golden and we were young, and the magazine was all there was to bring, and you woke in the night when the birds were singing just for you and the smell of soil and the warm breath over through you, ohh it moved you. All there was to it, was the morning of my life." He also describes that the overall idea behind the first two A Taste of Ra records was for pure vocal and instrumental experimentation -- using recording techniques on a more personal level. On this final record in the trilogy, he takes a different approach, starting off with one song that he developed together with Swedish musician, songwriter and producer, Jari Haapalainen. The song naturally broke up into six movements, creating a film-like, dramatic pattern, and Johan Berthling made some beautiful arrangements for three of the movements. Starsailor-esque vocals, jazzy horns and loose, clattering drums mix with piano, harp and guitar arpeggios -- just as much of an Impressionistic song cycle as Van Morrison's Astral Weeks.
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HAPNA 030CD
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The mysterious pseudonym remains, in this, the second release in the Taste of Ra trilogy. The accompanying information describes the music as such: "When your ears are gates and they're wide open. Levels of sound will chase you down, collide, kiss and fight. In the yard that you now found; The past will meet the present, you're paying past with present. When you finally hear her voice that makes you leave your body behind and meet as gods...Sound will evolve and something that was once heard by the keeper of the horizon is now heard by you." The familiar song titles on this record imply that this is a stylistic continuation of the first album's cryptic new-folk experimentation. One hopes for further promise of pastoral Swedish psych weirdness, acoustic tranquility and harmonium drones topped by a troubadour's trilling howl, that served to put Banhart and Chasny to shame.
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HAPNA 023CD
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Cryptic new-folk experimentation from Häpna. The accompanying information only describes the music as such: "Imagine a spirit awaken when it's too dark to see, but the bright lights that make you pass through life's octaves burst the gates of heaven with a tune that fills one's chest, and can be seen as a gospel for the glory each morning tells you about. If you listen carefully his friends are everywhere. They make the soil bend beneath your feet while the sharp light reaches your soul like spears (di spears). So beware and inhale, when you finally embrace A Taste of Ra." What we hear is pleasant-enough singer-songwriter blues backed by gentle guitar strum, harmonium hums, echoed piano and distant pipes. A Taste of Ra conjures up the bluesiness of Jeff Buckley, the trilling howl of Devendra Banhart, with found-sound droning instrumentals reminiscent of Pelt, Joshua Burkett or Six Organs of Admittance. Some might find the anonymity of the artist frustrating, but this release is a prayerful exercise in gentle, low-tech bedroom-folk with just enough of a touch of weird to make it interesting.
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