Beyond Breath

The liner notes that come with the CD claim this is ‘Indo-Baroque meets alt-folk minimalism.’ The ‘Indo’ of this description likely refers to Indian-American violinist Preetha Narayanan – one half of the duo Balladeste – and to what they mention as one of their inspirational sources, melodic lines from Indian devotional songs learnt during Narayanan’s childhood. The baroque element can be heard in the combination of Narayanan’s violin with Tara Franks’ cello, mirroring baroque settings, and the alt-folk of the description is reflected in the melancholic half-Celtic half-Americana flavours of their music. The setting is minimalistic, yet the music is in fact quite tense. Listen to the opening track, ‘One’, for example, serene but full of murky layers looming underneath. Meanwhile, the whole album sounds sensual, partly due to the delicate and loving handling of the instruments, recorded closely, making it an intimate listening experience. Cinematographers looking for music that can radiate suspense but at the same time is warm and intimate, while remaining as far as possible from being ‘background music’, then look no further.