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Karda Estra - Thirteen From The Twentyfirst

Artist:	Karda Estra
Title:	Thirteen From The Twentyfirst
Label:	No Image NICD13
Length(s):	51 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2000
Month of review:	[03/2001]

Line up

Richard Wileman - classical, electric and bass guitars, keyboard, acoustic drums and percussion, effects and experiments
Ileesha Bailey - vocals
with
Rachel Larkins - viola, violin
Zoe King - flute, saxophone clarinet
Caron Hansford - oboe, cor anglais, bassoon

Tracks

Surrealisms

1)	Dorothea's Nightmusic	3.28
3)	John Deth	3.20
4)	Autumn Cannibalism	3.58
5)	Sleeping Venus	2.15

Miniatures

7) The Toy Musician 2.24

Soundtracks

8) Evolution - Theme From "the Jag Man" (revised) 2.43
9) Remember Me 2.49
10) Soulsearcher 4.38
11) Rex Mundi 5.43
13) River 6.48

Summary

The second Karda Estra, now a full album. The first copy got lost in the mail so it took a while before Richard and I realized this, which is why this review is a bit late.

The music

The album is split up into three parts, the first of these is Surrealisms. The five different tracks, each based on a piece of surrealist art, in this first part open with Dorothea's Nightmusic, typical for Karda Estra: varied instrumentation with the melodic vocalizations of Ileesha Bailey. The music is very melodic and has a subtle ring to it. The style can be likened to Enya (during her better tracks).

On The Ribbon Of Extremes my thoughts go more to Portishead. The song has some tenseness lurking in there. John Deth however opens quite merrily. Quite abruptly however the music takes on a different character with spooky, warped sounds. The soothing melodic vocals win out however.

Autumn Cannibalism has a mysterious ring to it, with rather loud percussion at times, but for the most part oboe and keyboards. Again all very subtly performed. Sleeping Venus has real lyrics for a change. The song itself is the most quiet up til now with mainly acoustic guitar.

The next part is comprised of two miniatures. Bathed In Light is the first of these. This is a rather classical sounding piece, a quartet in fact, sounding a more complex and intertwined than the previous tracks. The melodic material is reminiscent of the first tracks. The booklet states we have two flutes and two oboes playing here. The second part, The Toy Musician, has two viola's instead of the flutes, and is also a quartet.

The final part of the album consists of six tracks, all of which are from movies or radio performance. The first is a reworking of an earlier track, this time in more "acoustic" format with violin and viola. Remember Me is a longing sounding piece with fast acoustic guitar, but still very subdued and rather tense sounding.

Soulsearcher is a very dark piece of music. Very creepy. The eerie repetitive vocals do not help either. And then the percussion at the end. Can't be a very merry movie.

The lengths of the tracks are going up now, Rex Mundi. The music continues to be very moodevoking and interesting, with nice dark piano playing. The vocals are now gone a bit, only to return in the final track, River, with its rolling percussion and strong melodies on the bassoon.

Conclusion

If you liked the mini, you will certainly like this as well. In my review of the mini album, I wondered if Karda Estra would have enough quality and distinctiveness to fill an album, and my conclusion is that (t)he(y) do(es). For references, I'd say take some Enya, the atmospheres of Portishead, quite a few classical influences in there, and out rolls some enchanting music, and I mean this literally: the music of Karda Estra often sounds as if it were a sound track for a fantasy movie. The band does keep in mind that the album should be listenable, so different moods are evoked to keep the whole interesting enough, and the melodies are in a way similar, but never boring. Subtle music.

8)	Evolution - Theme From "the Jag Man" (revised)	2.43
9)	Remember Me	2.49
10)	Soulsearcher	4.38
11)	Rex Mundi	5.43
13)	River	6.48