MADINAT AL-MAYYIT

This is another of the "geographical" albums of Senmuth. I mean one of those in which each track is referred to a place in the world. The nice thing if you download the album from Senmth's website is that each mp3 track contains a jpg image of the place that it represents. "al-Mayyit" means "The Dead" in Arabic and I think this album is referring to the "Dead Sea".

For who already knows Senmuth the first notes of "Syria" show clearly what the album's contents are. I have to say that the quite discordant melody reminds me to "Sisyphus" from Ummagumma. Imagine that track played with middle-eastern instruments.

The temple of "Ain Dara" is in Aleppo (Syria again). This is a standard Senmuth track, with some passages more melodic with techno percussions and ethnic instruments for the melody. It's remarkable how the guitar which appears sometimes has an Oldfield's sound. Try to catch it.

The old friend "Annie Red Hat" sings on "Ishtar". She's not a place, of course, but the Goddess of fertility. Some studious say that the Christian Mary's myth is derived from her. At least there are common elements. This track is more symphonic than usual and Annie makes vocalisms only so even with a vocalist this can be considered an instrumental track. Very nice, too, even in the uptime part.

"Qatoure" is just an ethnic track without a beginning and an end and heavily distorted guitar behind. I haven't found what this word means, but the associated poto shows some ruins in a desertic land.

"Apamea" is totally different. It was a Greek city in Syria, and I think that Senmuth has efficiently reproduced the mixture of Greek and middle-eastern elements. The sort of violin or cello playing on this track has a strong Mediterranean flavor. When it stops the last seconds of the track contain water noises, too.

"Baalbek" is the Roman "Heliopolis" (city of the Sun) It stays on a high mountain in Lebanon at more than 1000 meters height. The track is powerful and symphonic with sudden ethnic interludes. One highlight, IMO.

From the associated picture "Darkita" seems to be another archeological site. From a musical point of view it's another standard ethnic Senmuth's track. There's a huge use of cello (or electronic equivalent) in this album as never before. There's a contrast bewteen this rhythm music and the wilderness of the photo. Red ruins and dry grass. Who can play percussions here?

"Tadmor" as internet says, is "an oasis city at the point of intersection of the caravan roads in the central Syrian desert and the steppe land". The photo shot is taken at the twilight. It's a fantastic photo and the music makes its part very well. Like the comment for a documentary.

"Ebla" was a very important city in the ancient times. Still in Syria, close to Aleppo. The music is like Senmuths is trying to give an idea of city life, markets and people in the heath of the middle-east. Of course it's strongly ethnic.

"Persepolis" is melodic instead. (in the Senmuth's meaning of melody). I have the impression that this song is already featured in a Senmuth album, but with a so huge production and without a database I can't be sure. A very nice track anyway.

"Qalb Lozeh" is another syrian ruined city which contains the rests of the most well conserved ancient Christian church. It's an imponent basilica of the 5th century AD, The track is not as imponent. Percussions and cello, mainly.

A "Ziqqurat" is the Mesopotamic pyramid. There are meny ruins of ziqqurats in Mesopotamia (Syria, Iran and Iraq) and they were temples. The music is pompous and loud, like Senmuths wants to underline the sacrality of the temples. Not an impressive track this one.

Another Syrian dead city, with the charactesistic that it seems to have been abandoned yesterday... this is how "Serjilla is often described. The music is dark but it seems that Senmuth is trying to give it its life back. Like people is only hidden somewhere, like spectres ready to re-appear.

Finally "Levant" is the summary of what we have visited until now. "Levant is the name of the area between Syria and the Mediterranean sea. It's a good closer, not too loud and melodic enough even if uptime. I can see it for the end title of this imaginary documentary.

A good album, but without highlights so it fits well in the 3 stars definition.