Review by DjBatman
3½ stars out of 4
Ladies and gentlemen, you're floating in your own inner space. I
got in touch with Eleven Shadows (aka Ken Lee plus various contributors)
about four years ago, I think. Ken had a track ("Shegar")
published by UK music magazine Future Music; I was intrigued by the
fact that a guy from Encino, CA could produce beautiful ethno-ambient
music with an oriental feel and female vocals in Italian. So I sent him
an e-mail and we stayed in touch for a while. Through his messages and
his website
(http://www.theeleventhhour.com)
I learned about the progress made by his works, the collaborations he
was into (one of these is a project called Paramecial Wedding, that has
been also presented live) and his inspiring travels to exotic places like
Tibet and India.
A couple of years ago, when I was asked to find new
music for a compilation to be released in Italy by a new label, I contacted
various friends around the world and of course Ken was one of them. This
way I had the possibility to hear more of his excellent, professionally
recorded material (on DAT!!!) and to lose myself in the percussion-filled
aural ambients of tracks like "Wamena" (which was chosen for
the compilation). Actually, after more than one year of hard work,
contracts, travels, studio time, emails and faxes around the world, that
infamous label did not release that disc, which is still on hold.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Ocean, Ken was struggling to see his
stuff released. Well, it took a while, but finally, at the beginning of
summer 1999 this excellent double CD (two albums for the price of one!!)
comes out, on the Curve label. Also, with "Sangsara" coming
out soon on the Ad Astra label, 1999 announces as the year of Eleven
Shadows. Right now I am enjoying "Salawati", and I have just
finished listening to "Wamena", having again that incredible
feeling of getting lost in an exotic world of sound, with ethnic instruments,
keyboards, percussion and the operatic vocals of Judy Neubauer. As the
first cd stops I switch to cd 2 and I get back to "Shegar",
which was the song that (for me) started it all; the lyrics are about a
man crying near a circle of stones... the remains of his house. If I'm
not wrong, this song was inspired by a real person met by Ken during one
of his oriental trips. The same album contains other Italian operatic
numbers like "Caro mio ben" and "O mio babbino caro".
Ahhh. You know, I'm envious. I had the idea (well... I wasn't the first,
to be honest!) of doing a track with this Puccini-borrowed aria (from
the opera "Gianni Schicchi"... sadly used in Italy in a tv
commercial) years ago. I would have loved to sample Maria Callas' voice
and put it in the middle of a rave/techno anthem. Eleven Shadows do not
sample anyone nor they (he?) are into techno. Their rendition of the aria
is stunning anyway. Let's say that it's my third favourite version after
the Callas version and the one contained in "Lauretta" by
Malcolm McLaren (on his heavily opera-inspired 1984 album "Fans").
Is that enough as a compliment? :-) And you'll be even more shocked when
you'll hear vocals switching to German and French (!). Quoting from the
liner notes: "Let it be known that no looping or sequencing were
utilized". Well, in the days in which looping and sequencing seem
indispensablein every record production and everyone is sampling everyone
else, Eleven Shadows are/is the proof that "real" musicians are
still here and they definitely still have a lot to tell. Now throw away
that Celine Dion disc and go buying "Irian Jaya/Chronograph".
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