Review: Sound Awakener - September Traveler

Something a bit different from my usual choice, but something well worth checking out, especially if ambient/drone is your thang. Sound Awakener is Nhung Nguyen from Hanoi, Vietnam, a classically trained pianist. 'September Traveler' is a collection of her early works and also the soundtrack to a new exhibition by Berlin based photographer Irene Cruz*.

'September Traveler' is composed of 5 tracks which vary in length from just over a minute to over fifteen minutes and is an album of cold beauty; glacial being the word I would chose to describe the album as a whole. Piano, as you would expect, is the main instrument, but it is the use of some ambient, chilling drone that really captures the imagination. The title track is almost purely drone based, creating an atmosphere that is claustrophic without being stifling while 'Pale Morning' has a tinkling piano that reminds one of melting icicles in a frozen forest. The centrepiece of the album is without doubt 'The Shade You've Become' with it's treated piano and sinister vocal effects - put me in mind of James Kirkby's 'The Caretaker' work.

Nhung is obviously well-versed in the musique concrete of the early electroacoustical innovators, but this is an album without pretension but rather a piece of art by an accomplished musician who intends, and succeeds, in evoking landscapes, some dark and some light and it is this juxtaposition of shades that gives this work it's power - lovely stuff!!

The album can be be heard and purchased at Sound Awakener's Bandcamp page.



From the Press Release - “What Dreams Are Made Of” is an experimental project started by Irene Cruz when she shared the photographs with the poetess Sara Bounajm, encouraging her to interpret the photographs, making them of her own, getting inspired in order to create and giving so, voice to them. Nevertheless, the photographs will be brought to life not only through the words. The Pianist Nhung Nguyen, inspired by Cruz’s work has also given her own interpretation to these photographs through experimental piano music. This exhibition seeks to create an atmosphere where poetry, music and photography come together generating a total harmony. Conceiving the exhibition space as a place where the tenacity of the stories told through Cruz’s photography melts with the power of the word by Sara Bounajm and the interpretation of the pianist Nhung Nguyen. A trip to which the spectator is invited to join them in their insatiable search, and that promises an approach to new forms, formats and means of expression."

The exhibition is on at The Ballery Berlin from 6th to the 17th February. More info on Irene Cruz can be found on her webpage.