Innerwoud & Astrid Stockman – Haven (CD Album – Consouling Sounds)
Genre/Influences: Experimental, neo-classic.
Background/Info: “Haven” resulted from the common efforts between Pieter-Jan Van Assche (Innerwoud) on double bass and soprano Astrid Stockman. Most of you are probably more familiar with the work of Innerwoud who worked together with artists such as Barst and Treha Sektori.
Content: This album has something of an artistic intercourse between the melancholia and reverie of the double bass and the magic of Astrid’s vocals. Both Belgian artists are simply complementary accomplishing a deeply artistic work. But the album is much more than simply neo-classic music. It also has something experimental as some extra noises have been added here and there.
+ + + : The double bass is not the same as a cello, but there’s a similar emotion coming out. This melancholia creates a delicious symbiosis with the artistically trained vocals of Astrid Stockman. The songs have this transcendental power that makes you forget all daily misery. You feel like you have entered into another world, which is dark, but offers feelings of relief.
– – – : The album features 4 cuts. Only one single track (cf. “Elegy III”) can’t convince me; it’s short instrumental cut without real interest.
Conclusion: Music is emotion and the emotion I feel when listening to “Haven” is sadness. And believe it or not, but sadness can become beautiful and even deeply artistic.
Best songs: “Elegy IV”, “Elegy I”, “Elegy II”.
Rate: (8).
Artists: www.innerwoud.com / www.facebook.com/innerwoud / www.astridstocman.be / www.facebook.com/astridstockmansopraan
Label: http://consouling.be / www.facebook.com/ConsoulingSounds
About Innerwoud and Astrid Stockman
Innerwoud is the solo project of double bass player and composer Pieter-Jan Van Assche, based in Ghent, Belgium, active since 2014 with albums including “Sterveling” and “Morgenvonk” (both 2014) and the collaborative releases “BARST / Karen Willems / Innerwoud” (2015) and “Innerwoud + Treha Sektori” (2017). Astrid Stockman, born in 1987, is a Belgian soprano who earned a Master’s degree in piano at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven in 2009 and a Master’s degree in singing in 2012. “Haven”, reviewed here, is their first joint release, issued on the Belgian label Consouling Sounds.
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