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 LISTEN + BUY |
JENS GADS PRESENTS LE SPA SONIQUE (SEQUOIA) |
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I chose to review this out of a box of others for what I must admit is a silly reason: the purple flowers on the cover. There was just something about them that said "open me now" and I'm glad I did. Jens Gad is from Enigma and Achillea, and this is his artist album of 11 tracks, all serene sensual songs that avoid slipping into any new age hokey-ness, thanks to the propelling rhythms of drums, electric guitar, piano, and electronic elements. "El Momento" features sexy Spanish spoken word, and "Cape Blanc" swells with operatic soprano meandering among the piano and bass. I do wish there were a few more tracks with more vocals like those (others do have samples mixed in) as I would have appreciated the variety they would have added, one reason I'm docking this overall fantastic release half a star, the other being every so often I found a sound (such as moaning) to be annoying rather than soothing, so therefore out of place. But really that's a personal taste thing, not a reflection on the high quality of the production, which results in such gems as the lovely reverberations in "The Orbiting Suns" and the nice touch of the wave sounds between tracks. A few pretty cool notes: some of the proceeds of this release go The Rainforest Action Network; the CD sleeve is printed on recycled paper with soy ink (vs. oil based ink, better for the environment, who knew); and most importantly: the album was recorded, mixed and mastered on the magical isle of Ibiza, Spain, which I'm sure lends some of is mystical energy to the music you hear, and the warm feeling you'll get when you play this CD where ever you are. -- review by Claire Maxwell
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