And here is a thrird text, this one about Kamaloka, which is the free track Cuneiform issued to the public :
3 days to go til the release gig of our new album, Live at Yoshiwara. That means 3 tracks to explore til friday 18 ! Today we'll talk about Kamaloka, which is the fifth track of the disc.
First of all, here is the link to listen AND to watch the clip (that was directed by Alice Petit from images by Johan Cassagne) :
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/track/kamaloka
Kamaloka is the "desire realm" in the buddhist cosmology. This is, essentially, where we are : we're so driven by desire and so used to have a form (our body) that we keep living again and again in this world when we are born again (we could escape it and live in other realms, but that's not really Buddhism's point, which aims to escape ALL realms).
This term I found in a very bad book, The Secret History of the World, by Jonathan Black (in short : secret societies define the world from day one, etc.). I liked the word, and trashed the book. I kept it for a track, and decided to rework a very old riff I wrote, this time separating the riff in two separate ones (one for the cello, one for the guitar), that combines to form a melody. It is a bit "oriental" as it was really influenced by an Israelian band called Esta (nobody seems to know them anymore, but the guitarist from the band we were in, Camille Petit and myself, a long time ago, made me discover their music, which was great and inventive).
My intention was to give a sense of a seductive, attractive hell, through music. Not something dissonant, but, somehow, a trap that you chose to stay in because you happen to like it.
Rhythmically, the track is a 11 against 8 polyrhythm, which means that you can have TWO pulsations at once, with the same "one" but not the same count before returning to the "one" (I will now take TWO Nurofens). That is patent as the piano keeps a pulse, and when the drums begin, the 8-notes pulse figure of the piano is played against a 11-beat figure on the drums, although they occupy the same "time".
The drums were written to stress both pulsations at once, with an emphasis on the 11/8 figure, but with some accents belonging to the 4/4 figure (or the 8/8 if you wish). Therefore you'll find those stranges "bursts" of drums accompanied by slap bass, that fall in time with some piano's accents.
The "oud" sound is in fact made by Nadia Mejri with her cello, using a plectrum, a nice and cool sound ! And of course, you can hear a glimpse of a Pink Floyd homage in the accordion chorus, but no more shall say I !
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Originally Posted by Sputnik
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