ApEiRoN________________________________________________________________________________________________
VASCO MARTINS: Apeiron (CD on Syngate)
This release from 2003 offers 50 minutes of pleasant ambience.
Recorded live on the Cape Verde Islands back in 1999, this music features Martins on electronic keyboards, accompanied by Micau Chantre on percussion and conch shell. Soothing tonalities wash upon a virgin beach, heralding the advent of an atmospheric mood. Rising like a mythical creature from the sea, the music remains sedate and calming with flowing textures that bring the serenity of clouds to ground. Gentle percussives add a touch of body to the drifting harmonics while never propelling the music into a rhythmic state. Delicate keyboards maintain a luminous but mellow presence throughout. Lavish use of minimal melody achieves a breezy feeling, tickled by the periodic punctuation of drums and the outcry of a blown conch shell, resounding like a distant horn announcing the arrival of dawn spirits.A music leading the listener through a deep poetical conscience and imagination
Entire page © 2004
Matt Howarth.
All rights reserved.
The CD
Recorded live , with no overdubs, by Raphael Crohas in Mindelo, S.Vicente, Cape Verde Islands, December 1999, produced by VM Productions and Fisheymusic/NY, graphic design by R.Crohas, S.Heger and P.W.Hughes .
Musicians: Vasco Martins/Micau Chantre percussion & conch shell.
Themes:1-Desert Atmosphere (2.03) 2-Cercling Mountains (6.53) 3-Ocean Spiral Movements (1.40) 4-Céu Enevoado (2.54) 5- Flor Amarela (9.00) 6-Middle Atmosphere (2.04) 7-Arco do Nordeste (3.58) 8-Terceira Atmosfera (2.33) 9-Alauda razae (8.43) 10-Harmonic Lines (1.38) 11-Morna de Novembro (8.06)
Philosophy
More than 2500 years ago, the philosopher Anaximander created the concept ApEiRoN signifying the indefinite, the original entity of the world, from which all substances in the universe were created.Since time immemorial, man tried to communicate and to absorb this original source.Music is the way to reach the ApEiRoN.
The Arch
The symbol of this musical project is a stone arch built by the composer in the Norht of his island-S.Vicente, and signed by architect Anildo Silva. Starring out the ocean, between mountains and sand dunes, it is a open window to feel the original idea of ApEiRoN: infinity, cosmic and tellurian connections. Vasco Martins, with some friends, inaugurate the arch on June 21st, the Solstice Day of 1998
Cape Verde Islands Inspiration
The unique situation and soul of Capeverdean Islands, inspired this work: great mountains, alisyum winds, dolphins, acacias, the ocean, desert, endemic plantes, rare birds, volcanos, secret valleys and water spring...
First Press Review, by Ben Ketlewell/AMPress/USA
«...Majestic and evocative, the album is handsomely rendered by Martins' vision and abilities. This, consequential proves Vasco Martins to be a masterful artist of considerable originality. You are unlikely to hear many album's in this genre that are a consistent, mature, and totally immersive.»
To know more: Alternate Music Press