Kentin Jivek – Blue Zaxon (Album – Kentin Jivek)
Genre/Influences: Experimental, Neo-Folk.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: The new album “Blue Zaxon” by Parisian (France) based artist Kentin Jivek is mainly inspired by ‘the Mesopotamian tradition, with its myths and rituals with the Moon’. The work features ten songs.
Content: Kentin Jivek remains a sonic enigma when it comes to label his music. There always is an explicit and recognizable Neo-Folk approach which on “Blue Zaxon” has been mixed with an explicit electronic composition. For the very first time the artist used modular synths. It creates a minimal sound with on top the vocals of the artist.
+ + + : This album sounds different from previous ones. It’s probably -and mainly due to the modular synths. These prehistoric machines are complex to handle, but create magic sounds. But the work also features guitar playing empowering the Neo-Folk inspiration. I like the darker sounding “Les Centres Du Cercle” and the more Electro driven “Zoomorphia” which is a great last track. I also have to say a word about the charismatic vocals, passages reminding me of the charisma of Franz Teichler (The Young Gods).
– – – : This album will maybe become a turning point in Kentin Jivek’s career. He needs to find the balance between the different influences to achieve his magnum opus.
Conclusion: Kentin Jivek creates some distance from past releases to walk on new, exciting paths.
Best songs: “Zoomorphia”, “Les Centres Du Cercle”, “Rhadamanthus”.
Rate: 7.
Listen to “Blue Zaxon”:
Artist: www.facebook.com/quentin.moraud.9
About Kentin Jivek
Kentin Jivek is a multilingual, multi-instrumentalist singer based in Paris, France. Discogs describes his work as a form of psychedelic folk and ambient music. His discography starts with “Eight New Prophecies” on Urgence Disk Records in 2009, followed by “Now I’m Black Moon” on the same label in 2011 and “Six Diamonds” in 2013.
Side-Line reviewed “No Age”, released on Manic Depression Records in 2016, and the self-released “El Circo Cubierto” from 2020.
“Blue Zaxon” was self-released on 11 November 2021 and holds ten tracks, from “Apotropaic Magic” to “Zoomorphia”. Jivek states it is his first release built around modular synthesizers, with a flanger effect as the main source of guitar modulation and lyrics written in English and French. He followed it with “The Seahorse Complex” in 2022.
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