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Esmerine
Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More
Constellation - 2022
Harun Zulic
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Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More is another impressive work by Esmerine, Montreal's renowned modern chamber ensemble. It is their first new album in five years and was created "in the snowy Laurentian mountains and Gatineau Hills of Quebec, during a period when it felt luxurious to be even able to make music in person".
Through nine tracks, the talented quartet of Rebecca Foon, Bruce Cawdron, Brian Sanderson and Philippe Charbonneau explore spaces of a very emotional state of mind. This is revealed through slow-moving string melodies that are delicately supported by piano and pitched percussion instruments.
Everything Was Forever... takes the listener on an eclectic journey through minimalism, post-classical, jazz, post-rock and even some folk traditions, sometimes fusing several genres within one track. To illustrate, 'Entropy: Incantation, Radiance, The Wild Sea,' the album's second and longest track, starts off as a slow meditative drone, involving at one point a charming Anglo-Saxon melody played on a traditional Chinese hulusi. It soon evolves from post-classical towards post-rock, giving the track an entirely new experience. From there, it slides into 'Entropy: Acquiescence', completing the two movement cycles. Similar transitions can be heard between 'Wakesleep' and 'Number Stations', which use the sound of rain to connect them.
There is a fascinating selection of instruments here that gradually intertwine with each other to create a finely balanced musical narrative. As the group write on their website, "This album carries with it that sense of being 'snowed-in' and the joy of being 'all-in-it together', coupled with the unease and melancholy of having found an oasis while the storm continues to rage outside." Everything Was Forever... evokes a range of emotions, from anxiety and sadness to nostalgia and joy, and is definitely worth checking out.
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Constellation
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