Hidden complex beats, electronically restless, constantly shimmering about. The percussion pushes the whole thing just under the repeating melodies.
A sound of universal inspiration and wonderment
Capering, sometimes moody, beat-guided electronic music, all instrumental, no vocals, with some keyboard spring-funk always keeping it interesting. Hidden complex beats, electronically restless, constantly shimmering about. The percussion pushes the whole thing just under the repeating melodies. The record takes its name from a string of public parks that stretch throughout Boston, wrapping around the ponds and waterways that form the Muddy River.
Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted was born April 26, 1822, and died on August 28, 1903; he was an early and important activist in landscape architecture and the conservation movement. “He paints with lakes and wooded slopes; with lawns and banks and forest-covered hills; with mountainsides and ocean views…” said Daniel Burnham, one of Olmsted’s contemporaries. The Emerald Necklace Park, named for the way the planned chain appears to hang from the “neck” of the Boston peninsula, opened in 1837. From Boston Common to Franklin Park it is approximately seven miles by foot or bicycle through the parks.
From the liner notes, “Olmsted purposefully reserved certain sections of otherwise formal gardens to remain “natural.” These pseudo-nature spaces exist in contrast to the gardens and manicured lawns that surround them, and have served as queer gathering spaces for many generations.”
Rising full of life with some hurt mystery hidden inside, the first track is a joyful green space dance in the woods. Visit and enjoy, work, play and engage on “The Garden Path” (5:27). Go walking on the trails along a gentle stream connecting numerous small ponds. Strange lights reach behind the sky, “Under the Willow Trees” (6:27), at the point most distant from its beginning. The dance is traveling too, it curves into silver, gold, glass and amber memories from under the willow trees, a salix boogie, also called sallows and osiers. There is a catchy snappy beat pushing the piano melody, casting fancy dancing thoughts.
“Machine Speed” (6:17) features a conga sensation, hand drums with a language based on slapping the membrane articulating great intricate beats, creating unexpected cosmic prospecting and whirling fascination. The conga innovations woven with new forms have a glass, porcelain, bronze, ivory, mother of pearl, and enamel gleam in their force.
A new life in a much richer finger-snap environment ::
We are in a new place now, track 4 features the same technology but in a different groove, a haven for brighter, more predominant strength and joy. Now I am falling while dancing, “A Temple to Friendship” (4:58) brings persistent innovative time signatures. Harp breezes lead to unexpected commotion, keeping always a panache, “The Reeds” (3:44) form the three pillars of the Phragmites, with coral and pearl linear expansions. Uptempo and haunting.
Seeking, maybe finding a new life in a much richer finger-snap environment, “Paradise” (6:07) presents picture perfect pandemonium , a stumbling dance, building light investiture, build up build out, as the beat study enters curious areas of passion, now a carousel of cleverness, next a tapping witty tempo. Around again and again! The seventh track opens sad and dark, then it goes fast, “3AM Jeep to Worcester” (3:48) ride the beat, it sizzles as a highway throb modulator, the piano sustains and there you are, recurrent. Imagine unburying the river, “Morning on the River” (5:26). I hear the music of restless hope from important urban wilds, always the same and never still, a graceful highly developed flowing inexorable constant change. Colors dissolve to ringing light, a sound of universal inspiration and wonderment, “To Ether” (4:14). Find a winding stream, blue or green enameled and touch the sky. This electronic music is full of patterns and layers, echoes and openings of great expanses. There is a nervous beauty conveyed in the arrangement of beeps and strange ornamentation.
“For Ale Librada” (2:34) is the last track and the first question is, who is Ale Librada? The sound offers a wide range of secret adventures, the wide range of scenery, the good times looking for gold or precious metals, thoroughly righteous deep awareness, types of adornment that are ceremonial, religious, magical, ever-changing styles from the ale library.
James Murray is an artist with a BFA from the SMFA Boston and Tufts University, and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Some of his musical projects include The Dread Voyage by Dread Voyage, released on the 8th of November in 2013; À Vancouver, released 15 March 2017; City of the Night, released 30 January 2018; The Grotto, released 03 December 2018 and now, An Emerald Necklace, released on July 22nd of 2022.
An Emerald Necklace is available on Dragon’s Eye. [Bandcamp | Release page]
