专辑简介

Swedish Siena Root have with their second album left me breathless. After one week of intense listening it's clear to me that this Stockholm based band have released a musical monument. Of course I knew the quality of this recording would be very high, but still I'm swept off my feet hearing this modern masterpiece. Allthough Siena Root dropped a spiritual bomb two years ago with ''A New Day Dawning'' they have evolved with ''Kaleidoscope'', or rather undergone a kind of metamorphosis. While their first album was a display of superb 70's influenced rock, "Kaleidoscope" takes you on a trip through a beautiful harmonic universe, exploring rarely travelled sonic depths and nuances. In my opinion, three things have taken these cosmic voyagers further than most mortals ever get to travel. First off there's the song writing...besides the fact that each of the eight songs is a trip in itself, one gets the feeling of every song being specially written for each musician. Plenty of room is given for everyone to leave the mothership and float out into the depths of their individual abilities. Still, everything is cleverly held together by the collectives feeling for jamming and unified improvisation. Second, the feeling for implementing instruments like sitar, tanpura and flute with the ordinary ''Deep Purple'' set up, gives Siena Root the edge that makes them so special. And the third and perhaps most important factor is the arrival of queen Sanya, the band's voice since last summer. It's not often one gets to hear such presence and soul in a voice. Sanya has the full register needed to enhance the overall vibe. Her beautiful voice screams, whispers, liquefies, moans, and floats around you, inside you...a voice that is everywhere. No doubt it's Sanya's presence in the songs that elevates Siena Root into sonic nirvana. Recorded in the legendary analogue Studio Ovett, one has to check the cover several times to make sure that ''Kaleidoscope'' was recorded on this side of the millennium. And as one can see on the cover and booklet photos, everything used to record ''Kaleidoscope'' was manufactured in the early stages of the Vietnam war. The album opens with the groove of ''Good and Bad'', letting the four-piece present themselves to you. Sanya's voice is here in Janis Joplin powered modes, melting together with the guitar, making every hair on my body stand in attention. A spiritual jamming excursion dominates the middle of this song before Sanya's voice again makes me smile like a retard. Next up is ''Nightstalker'', an early Deep Purple influenced song, again half way through displaying a nice jam, elevated by congas. Then a tempo drop in ''Blues 276'', offering some fine guitar handling and yes...Sanya, in yet another dimension of her vocal approaches.When you enter the instrumental ''Bhairavi Dhun'', you will realize that this album is about way more than your 70's groove. Here Siena Root explore their trippier side as they let the sitar answer up to a tremendous jam, starting off easy and calm... slowly building up to something that sounds totally improvised and equally impressive. So now, after showing you that they don't belong in any predetermined genre, they serve up ''Crossing The Stratosphere'', another instrumental piece... this time numbing your senses with what can be described as a lost song from Pink Floyd's ''Dark Side Of The Moon''. One could say that it's a long intro to ''There And Back Again'', where they let Pink Floyd shake hands with Uriah Heep and Deep Purple. The hammond carries Sanya across the sky... tucking her voice into the music, creating a big, powerful sound. Next up, ''Ridin' Slow'', a killer riff in mid tempo with hot, sexy vocals and a fat Harley engine. Here a bluesier side of Siena Root is displayed and this will appeal to fans of song writing trio Blackmore, Gillan and Glover. Which leaves us with the last song on ''Kaleidoscope'', named Reverbations. On this, Siena Root's best song up to date they sum up what they're all about. Again expanding the band with friends Anna, Anurag and Tengberg, this song is a twelve minute long explosion of riffs, jams and sundry influences. I feel like an eagle, soaring high above breath taking landscapes... free... weightless... happy. A spiritual flute lingers around its hammond lover, merging together... then mixing with the strings... and hitting a crescendo that will put a sweet smile on your face. Out of this, hardly noticeable, a new riff emerges... not too far from Black Sabbath's ''Iron Man''. Sabbath get another loving glance when basser Sam jams off in a solo reminding me a bit of N.I.B. One can hear influences from South American, Hindi and North African folk music mixing with rock from the early 70's, making this THE album no matter what you are looking for. Well, brothers and sisters... by now you have noticed what ''Kaleidoscope'' has done to me. Now you must discover Siena Root for yourself... The Masters of the inner space. Rate: 13/13 Jose El Arcitecto -Monolith