MIRROR CAVE

After making six really interesting albums Spires decided to record a concept album. This only cassette release is based on Italo Calvino's short story 'Sword Of the Sun', but they have also added excerpts from Shinkichi Takahashi's 'After-Images: Zen Poems'. Palomar is the person in many Calvino's short stories and in this album Kathleen has taken that role. She is speaking Palomar's speeches from Calvino's text in a very impressive way. There is also one piece, where Taralie is singing. Because I am not native English speaker and I don't have this albums texts, I can't fully follow them. But what I understand and also read about Italo Calvino's writings, it's about the existence and it's illusions. Music in this album is divided into eight movements and partly movements are put into same track. Together with cassette release has come also 28-page book by Erik Ruin where is texts and drawings.

'MVMT I' starts as kind of theme of the album, that is repeated two times during the record. It has cello-tapping and two-tone flute loop. Flutes sound really loony! Soon Taralie starts to improvise with cello and Kathleen starts her 'Palomar speech'. In the end there comes sound of the ocean. 'MVMT II' has flute and vocal loops and Taralie's cello improvisation in the back of Palomar's reflections of the sun. 'MVMT III & IV' are in the same track. It's first very scary with lots of echo. But in the end it changes little bit calmer, but has still quite paranoid feeling. There is cello in both movements and in the end there comes electro & vocal sounds. 'MVMT V' is shorter reprise of 'MVMT I'. 'MVMT VI' has distorted cello and flute playing together with beautiful vocals of Taralie. Last two movements are again compound. First one is again quite scary, but in the second one they go back to the main theme. In the middle there comes again some electronic and vocal sounds. In the end Palomar can separate himself to the sword of the sun and go home from the seashore. Album ends into very low noise loop made by cello.

It's very sad and also surprising this very challenging project came only as cassette! I really hope, some record company (Drag City?) will make this vinyl release also with that booklet! Of course it's really great this is in Bandcamp as their all other albums. All the way this album differs from the previous Spires albums. It's fully contemporary classical music. I am really not an expert of that genre, so maybe I make a mistake, when giving this only four stars. But somehow this album isn't fully sound to me as masterpiece at the moment. I am wondering, was this the album Pekka Airaksinen heard when Kathleen and he started their collaboration, because this album really reminds Airaksinen's works? Anyway really interesting and great album, but to beginners I recommend to start for example 'Curse the Traced Bird'.