Rijaldian Notebook

Knocked out by this review of Adamantine from Sid Smith:

Updating with a quick edit for the sake of brevity and relevance… Back on Rijaldia, I am pleased that Adamantine appears to be finding new listeners. Radek K. posted an interesting review over at the Inner Knot site that I very much enjoyed. Here’s an excerpt:

“it’s a very daring, difficult music. I think that people who will say it’s beautiful won’t understand it. ‘Cause it’s not beautiful. It’s very deep, very serious, very personal. It has a few beautiful moments, some musically delicate moments, but 95% of it is a powerful musical behemoth that takes the listener to very strange places. This music is huge. It’s like a large, black hole at the bottom of the sea, or a shape of a shipwreck in the depth, something that overwhelmes us. The hole is a better description- it’s a black, 500 meters wide hole at the bottom of the sea, and you fall down into it, like into a mouth of some mythical creature. This music works that way. It’s not to be enjoyed. Don’t get me wrong- it’s enjoyable, I’m just talking about my own experience. It’s to be felt, touched and surrendered to. 

It’s a success. It’s not just another ambient or experimental music album with the “musician” doing “music for the sake of music”, it’s not another bunch of tracks to listen to and enjoy their beauty. It’s intrusive, it’s disturbing, it’s the musical version of the “Bitter Moon” movie. There are no excuses, just the listener and a large, mysterious space of experience.”

Ronan’s take on it is that “it’s a polarizing record—the people who like it will really like it, and those who do not like it, will strongly dislike it for the same reasons that the people who like it do.” Yeah, I had trouble following that too, but I think I know what he means.

Peter Banks offered this:

I think that you are on drugs and I really don’t hear a single !

It’s majestic and beautiful: you finally nailed it.

My favorite comment to date came from Jack Grapes. “I’ve been listening to adamantine and find the work quite amazing… it’s quite haunting and gets into the blood.”

I’m not entirely comfortable with all of it myself, but it’s time to let it go and do something new, and that is a good way for me to wrap up 2009 and welcome in the New. Wishing everyone peaceful holidays and a prosperous, healthy 2010 and Year of the Tiger.