TRMMIS

Another journey of Senmuth to an ancient land. This time we are in Lycia, a region of today's Turkey. There are also two "bonus tracks" taken from one of the best Senmuth's album "Internal Images" (I think it's a wrong translation, it should be Eternal Images).

"Xhantos Voice" is a short noisy collection of sounds which give the idea of a market or a Khasbah. Xhantos was the most important city of Lycia and I think Senmuth succeeds in setting the environment.

"Lycia" should be the proper introduction to the album. Between folk and medieval with high volume orchestral accents. In this album Senmuth is trying to re-create the sounds of the place and of the time as he imagines them. To appreciate it you must be on the same wavelength. Without travelling in space and time this album looses all its meanings.

"Ancient Whisper of Myra" Myra is a fantastic place even today. It's a big ancient city with an incredible necropolis of tombs cut into the rock. Seach for pictures on the web and relisten to this track while you watch them. This is the key. The cover picture is the Roman Theather of Myra.

"Pamukkale" in Turkish means "Cotton Castle". Travertineapol means city of travertine, that's a white kind of limestone. It's another wonderful place with natural pools of water in the white rocks. Effectively this track doesn't seem to be so inherent with the place. It's a hypnotic track with a background of heavily distorted guitar over a repetitive rhythmic base. It's one of the best album's tracks but it doesn't recall any specific image of the place it's inspired to.

"Hierapolis" is the Greek name of Pamukkale, but in Greek it means "Sacred City". The instrument similar to a mandolin or a sirtaki adds a Greek touch, however this is just a classic Senmuth's track with the usual industrial metal part, the ethnic interlude and the reprise with the guitar solo.

"Antiquity Stone Theatre" should be the Greco-Roman theatre of the cover. The music can be about a Greek tragedy or even about Roman Gladiators. The part driven by something like a flute is very good and I think that this is the best track of the album.

After so much Pamukkale, another city: "Idryos", quite known as a touristic place. Also this track features the flute. Respect to the Senmuth's standards this track can be considered melodic. It's the longest track and has different themes. Unfortubnately the part featuring the guitar solo seems too disconnected from the rest. It breaks the magic.

"Tahtali" is one of the highest mountains of Antalya. This track continues on the same line of the previous two: strong percussion and melodic flute with the inevitable interlude in the middle that this time instead of ethnic is a bit spacey.

For the last two tracks I remind you to my review of Eternal Images, so that you'll hace to read two of mines instead of just one....However that album was about various ancient sites and the two which have a geographical relationship with the album's subject.

This is an average Senmuth's album, enhanced by the concept but almost identical to a lot of other albums of this prolific artist. If you are not familiar with him starting with this or with another doesn't make a big difference. The only remarkable thing is the flute which doesn't appear always in his music, at least not so in foreground.

An average 3 stars for an average album.