By Geoff Topley
There are many bands influenced by the sprawling epic soundscapes created by Godspeed You! Black Emperor but no-one comes close to properly emulating their apocalyptic sound. Unless of course it's one of their multiple offshoots, of which there are many. For a while I was obsessed with collecting every lavishly packaged CD that had the ominous sticker on the front advising that the music contained within was made by members of GY!BE. Which is how I came to know about Esmerine, but it's been a long time since I've encountered them. Their new album Dalmak, is one of the most joyous and refreshing albums I've heard. Ever.
I must confess I'm going to struggle to convey to you the incredible range of sounds and instruments that feature on this album. The stories that unfold and the vision of why this music sounds the way it does is perfectly encapsulated in the brilliant press release that accompanies the album. Even how Esmerine present themselves to you is at a higher level than everyone else.
After uncertainty as to whether the band would keep writing and recording following the passing away of a dear friend, founding member Bruce Cawdron enlisted the help of some additional players and located to Turkey to record Dalmak. A host of Turkish musicians joined the recording sessions bringing with them a plethora of musical instruments I didn't even know existed (they're helpfully listed in the PR). Combining their marvellous sounds with traditional violins and some incredible percussion, Dalmak takes you away to far Eastern lands and leaves you feeling breathless.
As you might expect from this collective, the album takes a little while to get into full flow, opening tracks 'Learning To Crawl' and 'Lost River Blues I' have little or no percussion and tease with their resistance to rise above a steady hum. 'Learning To Crawl' is a mournful, but hopeful, beautiful intro of violins. This could easily be one of those quiet interludes on a GY!BE album before the almighty storm that ensues. 'Lost River Blues I' creates some serious Middle Eastern tension with Arabian melodies and instruments.
With the build-up completed the overriding feeling you get when the immense bank of drums and percussion of 'Lost River Blues II' swing into view, is to jump to your feet and dance. I really wasn't expecting this sound and initially it maybe made me feel a little compromised, I don't usually listen to this kind of music. Outside of my comfort zone I kicked off my shoes and absorbed the amazing fusion of percussion and magical instruments. The images that Dalmak manages to create in your mind are of deserts, distant suns and nomads hunkered on top of sand dunes gazing across barren landscapes.
There are many highlights on Dalmak, but 'Barn Board Fire' is perhaps the most traditional in structure, a swell of otherworldly instruments rises up from the eastern grooves occasionally almost serving as a chorus, it has to be heard to really appreciate the heady rush.
The two-part centrepiece 'Translator's Clos (Parts I and II)' brilliantly complement each other, part one is intense, like some movie chase scene through crowded markets. Part two is a more seductive piece, I visualise tents with desert winds blowing the drapes in front of a setting sun, our nomad friend reclining after the chaos of the storm has passed.
'White Pine' again echoes one of those quiet GY!BE interludes, violins lamenting loss and aching despair. Closing track 'Yavri Yavri' features some Arabian chanting over chiming xylophones and a backdrop of eastern sounds. You truly have been on a journey and the epic trip is now at an end.
As pioneers of the monumental post rock epic, these visionary musicians from Canada continue to be at the forefront of everything good about the genre. Whilst many bands try to re-enact their seismic sound, the original masters raise the ante by introducing new sounds and new ideas into the mighty sonic template. I highly recommend Dalmak to anyone with ears, this is widescreen music with more emotion in a single note than some bands manage in an entire back catalogue. In my attempt to review this album, one word could easily have provided you with all you needed to know. Take your pick from stunning, mesmerising, incredible and essential.
