ORCHESTRAL ROCK DELIGHT FROM ITALIAN OUTFIT
Karmamoi return with Strings from the Edge of Sound, their sixth studio album, and what a treat this is from the Italian band formed in 2008 by drummer & composer, Daniele Giovannoni. The lineup is completed by Valerio Sgargi on vocals, backing vocals and keyboards; Alex Massari, guitars; and Alessandro Cefalì on bass. Importantly, the orchestra was arranged by Emilio Merone. I say importantly, because this album is a symphonic delight, a wonderful fusion of rock and classical, in the finest of the tradition started all those years ago by the late, great Jon Lord.
Before discussing the music, a quick acknowledgement of some lovely artwork and images on the release by Joel Barrios. See below for a couple of examples.
The album has a mixture of adaptations of previously released music arranged specially for orchestra and new compositions.
The opening track, Black Hole Era is also an official video release, and I have embedded it below. Over seven minutes of sonic and visual delight on this. There is a gentle acoustic guitar to introduce us before the very distinctive (and pleasing) voice of Sgargi brings us the words, and as the track develops there are some additional vocals laid above the lead voice in a song which talks to me of us coming through a deeply worrying time politically, climatically, and socially into a place of new light, and this is reflected in the first listen we have to some quite beautifully understated orchestration. The band provide for a lovely expansion of the song, with a strongly expressive guitar solo as the track commences its closing passage. We tune out our fears, dreams, scars, and blank days. Quite lovely.
The first of the orchestral adaptations follows, this being Nashira which originally featured on Silence Between Sounds released in 2016. The piano which introduces is thoughtful, delicate and reflects the fact that the subject of the song is a star where humans must go to find their peace, representing the human beings’ failure. When the words commence, the strings ache with sadness, before the woodwind takes us into a different plane. Some of the bass melodies created by Cefalì are gorgeous before the track takes on an altogether darker hue chronicling the multiple failures of the human condition. The midpoint extended instrumental has the band and orchestra racing along in harmony, featuring some crashing drum and percussion work. Six minutes in, there is a return to the most gorgeous wind sound accompanying acoustic guitar and piano as we ask, beg, and hear the kosmos, and this passage is as sad and beautiful as you are likely to hear in 2023, a real highlight of the year thus far with guitar work especially to die for.
Take Me Home is from 2018 album, The Day is Done. The story behind this is incredibly sad – two Syrian brothers who took refuge in my country, one of whom died in a criminally tragic fire in a high-rise block, Grenfell in London, the other unable to help his sibling, this after surviving the horrors of the civil and international war in their country. The introductory piano is again sad, and the expressive voice of Sgargi recalls to me Nick Cave. The orchestra have added huge value to this song, as have the vocal layers, with soaring voices above the original bass vocals. The final three minutes bring us a mournful symphony, harpsichord vying with woodwind, keys, and guitar, with the whole track gradually building up to a dramatic close with some incredible choral voices leading the charge. Staggeringly good.
Tell Me follows, this an original song just over six minutes long. It starts with some dark synths, and this is, I believe, a track born of a significant event, perhaps a breakup, a loss, or the foretelling of such a life changing happening. The vocals are yearning and the words feeling a defeat and searching. Musically, very much in the mould of classic progressive rock, but infused with a modern sensibility, the guitar riff just over a minute out being especially significant.
Room 101 is from the 2021 album of the same name and, of course, is a 1984 song (of which I have been writing quite a lot lately on this website! It is a testament to Orwell’s literary genius that he still inspires intelligent music over fifty years after his passing). The lyrics perfectly encapsulate the sense of loss of self in the infamous room, the hulking presence of the party machine reducing one’s being to slavery. If you haven’t heard the original album, I have embedded the original video of the track below, whilst emphasising that the orchestra here adds a different dynamic in emphasising the horror of the torture alongside the dystopian band creation. The closing passage pulses menacingly. All in all, a very good example of an adaptation bringing something different to the musical table.
I Will Come in Your Dreams is next, a love song with some beautiful words and voices, perhaps with the intended separated by distance, but not in conscious thought or dreams. A strong contender for ballad of the year, I think, and Sgargi as the find of the year. The orchestra bring a sense of the dramatic and herald a classical wonder for the penultimate passage, the words belting out amidst the wall of sound.
Your Name is another track adapted from The Day Is Done. I think if this track had been restricted to some four minutes, there would have been a cracking single to be had. I enjoy the frenetic, madly operatic first half, which would grace many a theatre. This then calms down dramatically with a gorgeous bass melody set against piano. It is not that I don’t enjoy the quieter and pensive second half, I do, but it is certainly strange when set against what preceded it. Two tracks in one, I suppose, with the second half having a strangely calmer anger to it.
We return to Room 101 with Zealous Man, the longest track here at just short of twelve minutes bringing to us the relentless propaganda drumming home the message of not trusting the heretic lying to you, tricking you, and, again, the orchestra bring massive value to this, driving the message home with urgency alongside the riffs and a powerful rhythm section, but then with some gorgeous strings mournfully crying in a track which changes moods very cleverly and always keeps the fusion of classic, folk, and rock at its core and best listened to in a dark room, volume turned up to max, especially as the piece reaches its extended, expansive, symphonic, guitar riff laden denouement.
We close with the title track, a short two-minute orchestral psych laden piece, the yodelling at the end loud and leaving me with a sense that there could really have been more.
Strings From the Edge of Sound is a very good album, one in which the discerning listener with a decent sound system or pair of headphones will love immersing themselves in. For those not familiar with previous albums, the orchestral adaptations should lead to exploration of the back catalogue, whilst those already owning previous albums of this fine Italian band should not worry about repetition, because this is a very clever orchestral rearrangement of very good pieces of rock music alongside some classy original tracks.
Highly recommended and released on 1st September. You can see more at https://karmamoi.bandcamp.com/album/strings-from-the-edge-of-sound
