Artist: ARCN TEMPL
Title: Emanations of a New World
Label: Utech Records
Catalogue No: URCD030/Shokyo3
Format: CD
Edition: 500
Duration: 39 min
Released: May 27, 2010
Price: SGD20.00
Inventory Status: Available
Tracklisting:
1. Innocence & Ignorance
2. Three Realms
3. Wandering in an Empty Forest
4. Four Rivers of Melancholy Audio
5. Eighteen Steps of Evil
6. The Looming of Nothing
7. Dread Mountain
8. A Thousand Arms of Mercy
Leslie Low: acoustic guitars, electric guitars, e-bow orchestra, melodica, phasey drone organ, Fender Rhodes, floor tom, ride cymbal, crash cymbal, tambourine, effects, field recordings, voices.
Vivian Wang: organ, celeste, various synths, piano, alto saxophone, Balinese flutes, finger cymbals, Chinese cymbals, Balinese cang cang, Thai cymbals, wood blocks, mini-Moog.
Utech Records Media Release:
Vivian Wang and Leslie Low, both of The Observatory, recount childhood memories of mythological fantasy theme park called Haw Par Villa. First called Tiger Balm Garden, the odd but colorful attraction contained a strange mix of characters and familiar tales from Chinese mythology and folklore, mixed in with earthy depictions of modern life and the Chinese concept of hell. The mutual love and dread of the park is told over eight recordings. Voice, guitar, percussion and other traditional instrumentation weave a cloth of surreal bliss, eeriness and horror.
Reviews:
“The dreamily atmospheric album was inspired by the Haw Par Villa theme park, and features Wang’s warm synthesizer tones. Check out the Hammond B3 organ patch she used on Dread Mountain. Low’s restrained guitar work helps to balance the album’s sound, and he also sings on Four Rivers Of Melancholy […] Rating: A” – The Business Times, Dec 31, 2010
“The sounds are pretty, a bit haunted at times, spacy in places, somber and nostalgic. The darkest piece is ‘Eighteen Steps of Evil’, features screeches and scrapes. ‘Four Rivers of Melancholy’ is an amazing journey, that starts with guitar and voice and includes a far away whistle like a beckoning train, leads into an ominous shudder, and builds into a fuller, more psychedelic sounding piece. It all ends with ‘A Thousand Arms of Mercy’, a track with perhaps a sampled male narrator, hopefully telling us to not worry, that this trip to hell and back was only a ride… Luckily we have the lovely sounds to soothe us all the way through.” – KFJC 89.7 FM
Audio Samples:
2. Three Realms
4. Four Rivers of Melancholy Audio
5. Eighteen Steps of Evil
7. Dread Mountain
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