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New Age
Voice - Review
by Jeff Towne
(07/02)
DISORIENT
Richard Bone
...Richard Bone has released the latest
in his series of exotic, quirky CDs on his own
Quirkworks label. Bone says the title
Disorient plays on the evocation of
both Asia and confusion. "I wanted the music
to have an eastern flavor, but not be area
specific. As if you've just woken up in a land
that feels strange, exotic yet somehow
familiar...disorienting." The most prominently
identifiable Asian reference is the Gamelan
Orchestra, the array of gongs, bells and
xylophone-like metalophones native to
Indonesia. Bone says that these sounds were
the inspiration for the whole project, but not
through the traditional music, but rather the
Japanese group Jalan Jalan and their
atmospheric take on gamelan music as heard on
their CDs Bali and Bali Dua on
Pacific Moon.
The Arabic grooves on
some of the tracks resulted from a more direct
experience. "A few years ago I traveled to
Egypt to visit the pyramids and that began a
fascination with things middle eastern" Bone
says, adding, "that and my love of falafel!"
These world-music elements, combine with
electronics in untraditional ways, lending a
surreal tone to the recording. Bone says he is
shooting for that feeling of altered reality.
"You know when you have a dream that places
you in some strange land that you couldn't
possibly have ever visited but yet it seems
familiar? I hope I've created something like
that."
Although some of Richard
Bone's music has the feel of 1950 bachelor-pad
exotica, like Martin Denny or Esquivel for the
new century, Bone insists he's not trying to
be silly or ironic. "Although I've never
thought of my works as having a humorous, or
tongue in cheek quality, though that is
usually how I am personally described. I
suppose it only figures that those qualities
would find their way into the music."
In the midst of all the
electronics, drum machines and unfamiliar
timbres, a serene and spare piano frequently
glides elegantly through. Why include that
sound? Bone explains simply: "two
words...Harold Budd."
So if Indonesian Gamelan,
Middle-Eastern percussion, and ambient piano
is your cup of Oolong, check your bearings and
take a trip to the
Disorient.
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