PATH OF SATIAM

'Path Of Satiam' - Senmuth (7/10)

From his origins as an industrial metal maniac, Senmuth seems to have come quite a long way in two years. While he has released Raga albums in the past ('Swadisthana' comes to mind,) 'Path Of Satiam' doesn't try too hard to be 'ethnic,' and the music is kept from being too dense and challenging, while still maintaining interest after several listens.

Many traditional Indian/Middle Eastern instruments are combined with more contemporary sounds such as the electric guitar, and electronic music elements to make a very compelling new age work. While many Senmuth albums try to go all over the map (and end up feeling a bit scattered as a result) the sound here is kept relatively peaceful, although there's a wide variety of emotions throughout the half hour of music. From the beautifully tender 'Lament Of Taj Mahal' to the ominous anthem 'Terrace Of Baalbek,' the music demonstrates that Senmuth can be very diverse with his composition, even while remaining within a single prescribed genre.

While it is still evident that a fair amount of the music and sound here was spawned on a computer, things sound incredibly well produced for an independent project, and what electronic presence there is here doesn't deter from the performed instruments at all. Senmuth has greatly impressed me with this album; 'Path Of Satiam' provides a much more vivid musical experience than some of the other lesser works the man has created in the past. While there aren't necessarily standout tracks on 'Satiam' and the Indian-inspired sound of the album will not appeal to every set of ears, this is an album whose beauty takes a few listens to set in, but it is certainly worth the effort to provide a relaxing and exotic musical journey.

A very pleasant surprise. I was expecting the usual contamination between indian ethnic music and industrial metal (usual for Senmuth), but the first track ("Path of Markut") of this album even though clearly recognisable as Senmuth's is the thing closest to Krautrock that this prolific artist has ever done. It's a sort of symphonic-electronic song with a final that slows down and fades into the second track. "Adiathma". Totally indian this one, with just some electric guitar in the background and not all the track long. On its final the tablas stop and what remains are low-volume keyboards.

"Tipereth" is unusually slow-tempo. The ethnic element is prevalent also here, but the bass line and the unusually clean electric guitar made me think for a while to Floyd or early Tangerine Dream. A sudden stop made of keyboard only closes this track as the previous two.

"Dream Near Experience" can be called "progressive electronic". The guitar is highly distorted as usual and adds a bit of that industrial noise that I don't like too much in Senmuth's music but it doesn't disturb too much, also because it disappears quickly. This could be a track taken from the Tangerine Dream of the period following their floydian albums. The closing guitar solo, when the tempo increases is very good. Slow keyboard at the end, again.

"Hezen" is another slow track with a symphonic structure in the tempo and almost unstructured in the melodic line. Good but I feel like it's incomplete, or maybe too randomic. I will need more listens of this track, at least for the first 4 minutes. The final minutes fade out, like it was the last track of the Side A of a vinyl.

"Samatha" opens as it was the first track of Side B instead. The start is quite hard, like the intent is to create a gap between the first and the second part of the album. This is a contaminated track, with indian instruments playng over a quasi-metal base, then a metal guitar plays on an indian base. There is an alternance until the end.

"Taj Mahal's Lament" opens like a very clean mandolin. A bit more melody and I could think to tlisten to Mike Oldfield. The melody is unstructured and randomic as in the previous track. This is not a bad thing. Some chord passages are surprising and unexpected, never trivial.

The bass notes and the guitar of "Terrace of Baalbek" can remind to "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" from Ummagumma or to some Black Sabbath of the Sabotage period. It's a great track.

The mandolin or what it is, is back on Satiam. It's the excellent closer of an album on which Senmuth seems to have renounced to his harder and darker side. Up to now it's the most approachable of his albums. It's a pity that Satiam ends with a fade out. This is really the first time that a Senmuth album ends leaving me wishing more.

I have the temptation to rate it 5 stars, but I can't define it an absolute masterpiece, but it completely deserves the 4 stars that I'm giving it. 4 and half, really.