Sui Vesan
Sui Vesan
Merging with the Brook (World Village, 2006)
Sui
Vesan might be called a contemporary Persephone, you know, the Greek
underworld priestess that gained wisdom from her hardships and then
brought that wisdom back up to the earth. Sui Vesan grew up in
Communist ruled Czechoslovakia. She heard Western pop and Muslim sounds
for the first time at the age of 14 when her father took her to Syria.
This opened up an exploration of world culture and she began vocalizing
in a language that she invented, (Tatlanina). Following unpleasant
incidents involving official repression, Sui left her music career,
married, had children and taught at a primary school. 11 years later,
she returned to music with her husband, Rado on guitar and she
reclaimed her inner universe, which can only be described as a
wonderful kind of strange. And this other world has been officially
accepted by the likes of BBC 3, the Jazz Festival at London's Royal
Festival Hall, and other international events.
The BBC radio audience has embraced Vesan's music as well, her song
Poppy Girl reached number 13 and remained on the British music charts
for 6 months. But then, you must remember that England gave birth to
the likes of Kate Bush so Vesan's music wouldn't have been completely
foreign on British airwaves or ears.
I doubt Sui Vesan ever
lived in a proverbial box despite living under Communist rule and
repression. Her music and her personality that shines through is on the
other side of Neptunian. No doubt, her imagination and connection to
the natural world provided many means of escape over the years.
Although her biography supplies plenty of comparisons to the likes of
other experimental or unusual performers such as Kate Bush, Laurie
Anderson, Bjork and Mari Boine,
I think those comparisons are used to ground Vesan's work in
contemporary reality. Personally, I would like to see a collaboration
between Sui and Brazilian diva, Badi Assad,
who also seems to speak her own invented language when it comes to
composing songs. However, Sui's songs defy any kind of structure. The
songs meander like the waterway mentioned in her album's title, Merging with the Brook.
The songs are punctuated by liberated and playful vocals, that like a
puppy does whatever it pleases. The vocals which alternate between
rhythmic and lyrical defy all genres.
There are hints of jazz, folk and even Saami yoiks, but these are
just hints, places where the songs reside for a brief moment and then
race off in another direction. You can use words like pagan, earth
goddess, tribal or primal to describe the vocals, but even those
adjectives fall short of the mark. This is the kind of music that gives
lazy journalists a difficult time.
I would like to say that
the arrangements are simple because the two musicians employ only
guitar, kalimba (thumb piano), flute, animal skin drums and percussion,
but what the musicians do with this small array of instruments is
actually quite complex. Just listening to the first four songs will
give listeners an indication that they are listening to music from
another planet! La lo la lo sounds like a Saami chant, Shanya features
Oriental shimmering guitars, Kalimba features a chiming thumb piano and
Breeze in the flute brings in an unearthly fluttering and gossamer.
The entire CD is filled with surprises, right turns that should have
been left turns, hills that should have been meadows and a removal of
the 7 senses from time and space constructs. Certainly Vesan represents
a new kind of performer who not only gets away with doing her own
thing, but has taken many people along on her wild, wild journey. Buy
your ticket and embark upon this unforgettable excursion. Go where you
haven't been before.
Compliments of Cranky Crow World Music
[Buy Merging with the Brook].
World Music Central
http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20060107160934177