Azeruz

... transgothic
Cat no#: END003 Genres: avant-rock/pop, experimental, electronic, dub; mediaeval, early music, world music, ambient. Similar to: the Necks, Machine for Making Sense, Hildegard von Bingen, Bjork, Portishead, Cat Power, the Paradise Motel, Dead Can Dance, Peter Gabriel Re-released: 2006 (originally released 2001) Physical Distribution: Psy-Harmonics, Endgame Digital Distribution: Endgame, iTunes, IODA

album

trance

The self-titled album Azeruz was created by Chris Abrahams (one-third of well-known Australian experimental jazz trio the Necks) and Shane Fahey (Social Interiors, Scattered Order, Machine for Making Sense), using early music material composed by Stevie Wishart, an instrumentalist known throughout Europe as an early/mediaeval music composer and performer, and for her long-standing early music group Sinfonye. Constantly touring around Europes avant garde festival circuit, she makes occasional trips back to Australia. It was across a number of these that the material for Azeruz was developed into this album, painstakingly woven together over a period of years.

STEVIE WISHART: voice, violin, mediaeval fiddle, hurdy-gurdy, electronics CHRIS ABRAHAMS: sampler, dx7, piano, organ SHANE FAHEY: synths and analog tape manipulation All experts in their fields, these three musicians have succeeded in creating a sonic landscape of great breadth and depth that stretches back through time. Themes, song structures and instrumentation of early European music are successfully translated into a modern context with Stevies haunting vocals, arrangements and lyrical interpretations. Traditional instruments (flutes and percussion by Jim Denley, Stevies hurdy gurdy, fiddle, and violin) are combined with intricate sampling, programming and keys (Chris Abrahams) and analog synths & found sounds (Shane Fahey), brought together by Shanes careful, spatial production techniques. Chris, Stevie and Shane have translated the traditional form of early music song through the use of complementary harmonic gestures that have been sampled from the albums pre-production recordings. Loops have been worked into the whole structure of the music as beats and rhythmic overlays, extending into the areas of vocalisation and instrumentation. The resulting album is a musical odyssey that stems from the manuscripts of early music vaults. The trio set their sights on the celestial, and succeed in realising one of its myriad musical forms.

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Azeruz

interview
Originally, we got together through Stevie who, at the moment, is in Belgium, explains Shane Fahey. She is a well-reknowned exponent of mediaeval music and researching old unused manuscripts and reinterpreting them. Anyway, she had the opportunity to combine something with those ingredients into a more modern context, and so she and Chris started writing material together, a lot of which was loop-based originally.

Id known Stevie for awhile, says Abrahams. Were both improvising musicians and theres an improvising scene, and while I was never a member, Ive been involved with her group Machine for Making Sense as an occasional guest. She rang me wanting to make a record that wasnt a straight classical one but using loops and samples, and we started work on it in 1997. She comes and goes, with all the touring, adds Fahey. Half the year shes in the northern hemisphere, the other half shes here. So the project would hibernate, though we were still working on it while she was in Europe, and each time she returned, it would be a somewhat different project! On paper it sounded quite simple, Abrahams expands. Well turn Stevies mediaeval music into songs and then recordbut I think we all felt there was enough interest that we might as well go all the way, which ended up taking another two years. It turned into an album rather than an experimental piece of radio... A feature of the album is Stevies vocal delivery, which has been likened to Bjork, Cat Power and Marianne Faithful, giving the album an eerie and somewhat harsh quality reminiscent of the harsher, earlier times the music harks back to. Ive always been a really big fan of that kind of slightly awkward delivery that Stevie has, Abrahams explains. Its always musical but its not slick.

(Drum Media, Michael Smith)

(photos: Alan Cruickshank)

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Azeruz
Musically its one of those glorious genre-irrelevant numbers, and to try and get a picture of what theyre like, imagine if you will a combination of Bjork, The Paradise Motel, Cat Power and Dead Can Dance. Narrowing it down its a sort of an ambient mediaeval duban ethereal, otherworldly mood pervades the CD, creating a dreamlike state.

reviews

Michael Smith, Drum Media (Sydney)

The title is derived from the visionary writings of the 12th century abbess Hildegard von Bingen. Wisharts longstanding Early Music group, Sinfonye, is in the process of recording oeuvre for the US record label Celestial Harmonies. But Wisharts interest in singing doesnt stop at the point where Sinfonyes repertoire ends, circa 1400. Of the ten tracks on Azeruz, eight are songs. Her collaborators on this project are Chris Abrahams, pianist with Australian improvising group The Necks, and tape collagist and sound engineer Shane Fahey; but Jim Denley and Amanda Stewart (from Machine for Making Sense) pop up here and there, along with Mina Kanaridis. The artless sung-spoken vocals over Moorish hurdy-gurdy lines and rythms on Lacuna, and the manner is less weirdly adolescent, more sensual. Actually, Angels is downright sexy, music and all, as is Travelling at the Speed of Time. Wisharts hurdy-gurdy and violin are extremely potent in contexts such as these, and they cut through the mix in machine-driven, dance-oriented pieces like Quinken. The instrumental Cloud Over the Moon is pretty much a hurdy-gurdy feature, with occasional dense, billowing synthesiser chords foregrounding its switchback figurations and edgy sonority. But the instrumental contributions are always at the service of the song; nothing is permitted to divert attention from the atmosphere and effectiveness of each piece. This isnt musos playing at avant-pop, it is avant-pop, albeit made by grown-ups for grown-ups. To hear the soundworld of Sinfonye merge seamlessly with an absolute stoner of a groove on the title track is worth the price of admission alone, but everything here is surprising and really rather wonderful.

Avant Guarde magazine (UK)

Wishart (Machine for Making Sense), Abrahams (The Necks) and Fahey combine to create a magical listening experience, a convincing synthesis of medieval, pop and jazz. Its great to hear Wishart singing, Abrahams is as seductive as ever on keyboards and Fahey provides an immersive aural field.

RealTime Magazine, (Sydney)

Stevie Wishart is the moving force behind the mediaeval music group, Sinfonye, but here encountered in another capacity as a partner in Azeruz, purveyors of transgothic trance and trippy dub fusion from Sydney, Australia. The group takes its name from one of Stevies compositions to be found on Sinfonyes Three Sisters on the Seashore (1995). Stevie brings to this self-titled CD lead vocals, hurdy-gurdy and mediaeval fiddle. The trios other members are Shane Fahey (of Social Interiors) and Chris Abrahams (of The Necks) who contribute sampled beats, rhythms and soundscapes, as well as synths, and piano and organ respectively. Azeruz employ a wide range of approaches and musical references including elements of gothic-ethereal and hints of industrial/experimental supplemented by nodding references to Stevies other life with snatches of mediaeval song, subtle percussion (reminiscent in style of the playing of Sinfonyes Jim Denley) and some instrumental accompaniment recalling Sinfonyes exotic interpretation of mediaeval music. Stevies voice is well to the fore and on No Tears is reminiscent of Bjorks. Absence weaves singing with industrialexperimental noise in the manner of Orchis. Whilst straying towards World Music, this production should never-the-less appeal to many FluxEuropa readers. www.fluxeuropa.com (arts zine, Europe)

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