HIGH TEA

The first official album by MADEMOISELLE MARQUEE what I know. It was the debut release of Cat On The Moon Records, her independent label. The years before she offered recordings more privately and posted several trippy videos on the web. Avant-garde artist Sarah Ellissa Marquee from Scotland is really special - don't know if anybody is able to capture and to enter her private cosmos. First of all - music is not the only way to express her mode of thinking. She is a painter and photographer too. And lyrics are published on her website and on myspace which are transfigured, encrypted - a lot more for me as I'm not a native english skilled person. But this alone might not be a surprise at all.

I have already listened to a bunch of music which is deeply plunging into experimental psychedelic and space rock. But this tops it all (so far). Not to say that 'High Tea' is disconnected from reality completely. It would be quite suitable for science fiction movies for example. All such which avoid too much action and are full of melancholy though - where astronauts are looking down to mother earth through this small bull's eye when gliding in the orbit - maybe doubting about the adventurous trip or the meaning of life in general. Lost in reverie but not drifting into triviality - rather a collection of spaced out sounds which are not quite earthbound.

Opium Spades shows MADEMOISELLE MARQUEE acting with a voice which comes even near to singing in a common sense. And she overdubs a lot with the result of multiple rhythmic and soloing guitars plus some ambient patterns evolving in waves. Something way-out with druggy references according to the song title. This fades into Salvia, one of my favourites, making use of the krautrock veterans Günther Schickert and Manuel Göttsching with guitars which have a repetitive behaviour. Beautiful, melodic, well thought out on a sophisticated technical level.

The following songs are meandering soundscapes based on many variations and provided with lots of effects, delays and echoes for her voice or coming from the electric guitar. Wait - do I hear some organ snippets on Optical Astronomy? - I'm not sure ... When you're expecting rocking components then you will fail - okay, we have one candidate with the short Cremola Foam which is provided with sampled percussion. The Eclipse Reversal is made by many synth effects and reaching hard for the Tangerine Dream style. With the last Untitled song MADEMOISELLE MARQUEE closes the circle. This is coming up like a hidden track first with some minutes of silence. After that the theme of the first track is reopened. So if you are in the right mood you can use the repeat function and let this play again and again and again ...

'High Tea' flows off the beaten path. Was sure I already made my ultimate hallucinogenic experience many years back - but in terms of that I obvisiously was wrong. After listening to this incredible album I'm wondering if the story of psychedelic and space rock must be enhanced by a new chapter. This are sounds not exactly like but reflecting the spirit of the 'Kosmische Musik' - this time nearly reduced on one instrument (if you don't count the voices). I honestly won't promise to listen to the full length album over and over again because more than 60 minutes are a little bit too much in one go for me. But I will surely come back to some of these exceptional songs from time to time when I'm in the appropriate mood.

I did not exactly fall in love with an EP I reviewed earlier. My mouser loved it though.

This is the first official album from Mademoiselle Marquee, although her EPs are well over 70 minutes long too. Actually; High Tea is shorter than the EP I reviewed and comprehensive slaughtered some days ago. I am pleased to report that High Tea is a marked improvement from that EP. Not at least soundwise. Even a human being can now fully enjoy her products. The sound is mostly that good. The main instruments are mainly Mademoiselle Marquee's vocals, some guitars and a lot of sound samples.

The sound is so good on this album that I can actually compare it to something. That something is Krautrock and Guru Guru's most experimental albums. Guru Guru fans will find this album interesting.

There is no denying that this album and Mademoiselle Marquee's music is an acquired taste. There is a lot of nothing on this album where a guitar is nodding away for ages before something else, Mademoiselle Marquee's vocals or some tangents comes to it's aid. That is well after I have been bored to death and is starting to inspect the roof at my office for some help. For example trying to find the mathematic formula for it's construction. In short; I find this album pretty boring. It is a good improvement though so a couple of stars to that and some sporadic good melodies along the way. But I have to admit this is not my cup of tea.

2 stars

I was happy to find the latest album of Mademoiselle Marquee, whose powerfully psychedelic art had teased my imagination for a long time. The relief to this anticipation was realized with a CD holding open avant-garde sound realms, wrapped within cover booklet presenting the pretty visual artworks of the creator. I liked this personal end result very much, being a complete manifestation of creator's innovation and energies. The album appears like a soundtrack to the subconsciousness of a mind in altered states, musically being a really heavy and intensive trip of constantly evolving and seldom pausing voyage.

"Opium Spades" starts the session with heavily echo treated vocals and piano, tender acid guitars running behind to both natural and reversed directions. Though melodies match harmonically, the focus of the progressions is pleasantly disoriented, creating a sensation of euphoric chaos, boosted by wailings which emphasize the primitive sacred sensation of the aural flow. The reverend statements lead to a causeway weaved by guitar arpeggios, titled as "Salvia". This phase is sounding bit like Ash Ra Tempel due the symmetrical repetitive formations upon quiet synthesizers lingering in the background. Later the echoed singing returns, phasing to "Lilly Lumiere", which grows as richer sea of sounds with much shimmering and vibrating details on the surface. This felt to me as very soothing and mystic surrealistic aural space without clear directions or feeling of progression, still being on constant state of moving. Smoothly some more oppressing elements are introduced, as unclear and aggressive vocal samplings assault the scenery. Denser sound textures and darker motives in the free melodic harmony layers project quite phantasmal illusion state, which later gets quieter, surged to a vortex of tender guitars and vocals, both extremely treated with effect reverbing. "Electric Flower Gardens" is presented as melodically clearer pathway, opening with sequencing sounds reminding Tangerine Dream's mid-1970's sound. Some fuzzy guitars, distant hollow witchcraft voices and clear shining synths are later implemented to the installation. Backwards running reverbs throw in more intense and shorter scene of this mysterious ocean of sounds as "Excess Fix", flowing then to "Optical Astronomy", started by tender guitar picking. As distantly haunting pretty vocals accompany this moment, an eye of a storm is created to the psychic maelstrom. From the calmness a beautiful guitar solo arises with slowly pulsing chords. Some vocal statements announce the ending phases of the longest track on this huge musical entity, and also introduce some faint rhythms, which are a very scarce element on the album. Even these quite fast fade away, keyboard chords return with some kind of winds blowing forth "Interlude", which is a short and chaotic vocal sample passage. Backward recorded drums and hovering synthesizer walls form some "Cremola Foam", where the direction flow of entropy and drums are later turned to more natural direction, which stay behind strong fence of electronics, phasing in and out without any restraints. "The Eclipse Reversal" builds from these echoed walls, strengthened by programmed rhythms and spacey sounds, and the revealing solemn synth and guitar melodies. There is open space reserved for solitary repetitive guitar passage, which returns to spacey theme from the song's beginning, and then sticking to a singular key. From this basis emerges a neat guitar solo, reminding the melodies of classic Pink Floyd sounds. The untitled end brings a moment of silence to the aural flow, and after four minutes melodically beautiful dramatic theme emerges, produced with for synths, piano, and passionate vocals. Vibrating humming and drums enter creating minimalist trance, which suddenly escapes to totally different plane of waving audio elements, which hover around in intensity and are circled by luminous chiming, illuminating these final beautiful themes and vocal tricks.

The low presence of rhythmic section makes this music very ambient, and I like the way how perception of time gets faded in this myriad scenery of shimmering sonic objects. It is also interesting, how well the recording keeps its integrity, considering the vast amount of musical elements being treated quite chaotically, themes appearing and disappearing very unregularly way. Still in my opinion the end resolution is whole, pure, and flowing calmly according the logics of the dreams. Hopefully I will later find somewhere more releases of this most interesting underground artist as soundtrack for the sacred confusion sequences at home.