Otherness

Imagine yourself watching a performance where musicians perform a kaleidoscope celebrating world traditions, including multi-lingual voices, sometimes mysteriously inserting newly formed words made from different phonetics, and you might now have a picture of AO Music’s seventh studio album, Otherness. Rich harmonies provided by soft synth sounds overlaid with choruses of voices and instruments from across the globe throughout the album merge to provide a truly East-meets-West effect. Predominant South Asian sounds, with a bansuri featured in the title-track, join tabla, harmonium and improvised vocals from Varijashree Venugopal in a warm embrace of India. In contrast, tracks like ‘All is You’ open out with water sounds and layers of vocals that instantly transport you to China and South-East Asia. Lyrics such as ‘the world lives in your eyes’ bring English vocals into the mix, though at risk of being a bit cheesy. So, like a dream, the album washes over your ears with the unobtrusive blend of Western and Eastern. Perhaps like me though, for album seven, you might have wanted more. After the yellow glow of each track, the album feels a bit monochrome – perhaps more textural contrast is needed?