Search - Zeena Parkins, Ikue Mori :: Phantom Orchard

Maybe a little TOO avant garde

Penril | Mexico city, MX | 01/29/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I got word of Zeena Parkins by listening, as many people, to Björk and watching her live shows. I remember Zeena playing the harp, the electric harp, celeste and the accordeon in the same gig, which I thought was wonderful. Then I started digging for her own music, and I came to Phantom Orchard. I wasn't surprised to see that the album was a collaboration, and then I was a little perplexed to find that the collaboration was with Ikue Mori, as I had only seen a very harmonic side (muscially speaking) of Zeena Parkins with the song "Generous Palmstroke" she wrote with Björk.

To be honest I didn't know what to expect, and then the beautiful tension of "Jezebel" started. I felt I was being abducted by aliens with the first electronic sounds of the track. Then the harp started, and gave the melody a very interesting twist, making it very misterious and giving it a somewhat crystal cave feeling to it. I can't say I wasn't disturbed by the sounds that were entering my ears at first, but later on I found them brilliant.

It's actually very hard to explain this album with words, it's one of those you'd have to listen for yourself. The most similar thing I can think of is Björks "Drawing Restraint 9", composed for Mathew Barneys movie, and even with the minimalistic eccentric sounds the soundtrack for DR9 has to offer, it really isn't as phantasmagoric and alien-like as Phantom Orchard.

Also, if you ever heard the soundtrack for the Silent Hill games, then you might have an idea of what this sounds like. Only, instead of the bone-chilling, industrial beats the game yells out, throw in harp notes and machinery-on-work-like noise, but leaving the same structure of the music.



"Jezebel" is the perfect introductory example for the album as a whole, going from beautiful to horrible, from peaceful to stressful, from harmonic to disturbing, but never in the middle, or on either of the two sides of the string for too long.

The magnificent "Mura" is like an electric discharge of space energy melting your brain as the interrupted sounds go from one speaker to another, followed by the dripping introduction of "Ghost lake", which calms you down after the storm of noises.

"Deft" sounds like a beautiful lullaby from hell, as the harp merges with the powerful echoing volcanic sounds produced by the synthetizer. After "Deft", we are introduced to the electric beats and sounds of "39 steps", which almost doesn't sound like music at all.

"Transparent things" brings to my mind a crystalized waterfall hitting on metalic surfaces, as cascades of harp stand out among the distortion summoned by electronic means. After this, the heavy "Contraband" starts; the electronic sounds more rough and evident, it is as if a monster was roaring into a walkie talkie, followed by a not working motor of an agonizing boat.

Finally, the album reaches its end with the echoing "Blue moon", a calm mixture of ghostly moans and water dripping from the ceiling of a pitch black cavern, inside of which we are trapped forever, never to return to the outside world, as no real exit from the album is expressed, only confusion and blurred thoughts.



The electronic single notes provided by Mori and the peaceful melodies provided by Parkins make this collaboration unique in this world. It's eclectic, disturbing, relaxing, astounding, but most of all, intriguing.

You'll find yourself trying to solve a mystery that never was, only to keep going in circles one time after another.



Maybe Parkins and Mori went a little too far in the experimental melodies they offer, though their originality and brilliancy is evident. Definately, this album is not for everyone out there. Either you love it or you hate it, but I find it really hard to be in the middle."