Since 2010 Iamthemorning is a Russian duo consisting Gleb Kolyadin on grand piano and keyboards and Marjana Semkina the female vocalist. Belighted is their second album after the release of their first album in 2012. The other musicians are Gavin Harrison on drums, Vlad Advy (guitar and percussion) and Max Roudenko (bass guitar) on The Simply Story. There is also a contribution from The Turner Quartet featuring Robert Yeomans (violin), Ruth Funnell, (violin), Holly Rouse (viola) and Rosie Banks-Francis (cello) on The Human Misery and The Simply Story. To listen to the music of Iamthemorning is quite a challenge! It's not simple rock or even radio friendly pop music. No, it's a melting pot of classic - piano based - chamber music (Satie and Chopin) and the musical and fantasy world of Kate Bush and Tori Amos. To be honest it was not my cup of tea, although I can imagine that other listeners have more appreciation for the efforts of this duo. The piano music from Gleb is great and you can easily hear that he had a classical education. But unfortunately the vocal qualities of Marjana made me a little bit nervous. It sounded haunted and restless. I don't want to be too negative, but I've heard it much better and the combination of classical music and the high voice of Marjana is not always working great. For example on K.O.S. I could not hear the lyrics very clear and the singing was quite irritating. Good luck with this second album of Iamthemorning. *** Cor Smeets (edited by Astrid de Ronde) Where to buy? |
