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A æ u å æ ø i æ å, æ i å u å æ ø i æ å?

by E.A.R.

supported by
Obstacle of Affliction
Obstacle of Affliction thumbnail
Obstacle of Affliction Such a mystical and emotive release, this release has blown me away.
Each time I revisit this, I long to travel to faraway lands and fantasies morph into wild romanticism. But I never follow up on the desire to travel because that means i would first have to open the front door and walk outside. Nope.
I rather listen to this with my eyes closed and allow my imagination to transport my mind to those faraway lands. Plus, there is no extended flight with cramped seating and tiny toilets.
Conor Abbott Brown
Conor Abbott Brown thumbnail
Conor Abbott Brown A mind-blowing synthesis of musical traditions. I want to live in the world this album conjures. Favorite track: Khronokrator / Xρονοκράτωρ.
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1.
Strč prst skrz krk!
2.
3.
Twoje kroki na brzegu Nigdy te same Każdy krok jest wyborem Życie tak tworzy się Nieustanne kroki na brzegu Idziesz Idziesz Idziesz Coraz dalej I dalej I dalej Do przodu Życie nieustannym wyborem Każda chwila Każdy moment Każda minuta Każda sekunda Życie nieustannym wyborem NIE MA NIC PRZYPADKOWEGO (x3) Nie musisz nic liczyć Wszystko policzone już Nie ma nic przypadkowego Ocean nieskończonych (mozliwosci) Świadomość Nie ma przypadków Ani zdarzeń nieprzewidzianych Wczesniej
4.
Lo berde 05:02
şevek nîvê şevê da lo di giraniya xewê da destê xwe da destêmin lo bin roniya şevê da lo berde lo berde lawo destê min berde evînî bi kul û derde lo lawo deste mın berde min te dî bû xevza gulan sibe nîvro êvaran destê xwe da deste min lo xisim ketiye guharan
5.
My safe town 07:46
6.
7.
Reis glorios 07:44
Reis glorios, verais lums e clartatz, Deus poderos, senher, si a vos platz, al meu companh siatz fizels aiuda; qu’eu no lo vi, pos la nochs fo venguda, et ades sera l’alba! Bel companho, si dormetz o velhatz, no dormatz plus, suau vos ressidatz; qu’en orien vei l’estela creguda c’amena·l jorn, qu’eu l’ai be conoguda, et ades sera l’alba!
8.
9.
- Wo weeeee! - Woeeee...? - Wewaaaa! woweee... - We? - Wee... wewewewewewewe? - Woeeeeee... - Weweee? wowewewowewe, wowowewewewewe. - We-o. - Wowowewe wewewewe wiwiwo,wowwe wewewewewe, wowowewewe wowewe. - Wo wewewe, we weewe, wuwewewewewe! - Wowo wewiwi wewe, wowiwowowewe wiwi? - Wi. - Wewewiwi wewewe. - Wo. - Eee? - Woweeeeeeee!!! - Woweeee...? wo wewawewoweweee! - Wuwuwo wewewowe! - Wuwuwo we wewueee! - Wewe wiwiii, wewewo wewewe wowo... - Wu. - Oeeeeee...! - Wowoewe! - Wuewo. wu wiwi, wowowo wewe, wowo wowewewe wowo. Wawe? Waweee? - Wueeeeio. - Wawe.
10.
11.
12.
Mariola 05:16
13.
Światło. Światło. Światło. Światło przenika przez ściany Twojej duszy Świadomość której nie było jeszcze przedtem Istnieje Przychodzi Jesteś Duszo Jak ptak Otwarte, Otwarte, Otwarte Wszystko Otwarte, Otwarte Wszystko ------------------------------------------------- I will make it on my my own I will flame it on my show Time is fading on your eyes Coming from your dreams tonight Dancing angels on one side Howling specters on my skull Frightening demons of your soul I will bring you light I will bring you light Sailing on your hauting sea Precious monsters down on me I see a battle in your eyes Scars and samples of your life Exploding crystals filled with sins Spread your electronic seeds They will break walls in your soul I will bring you light I will bring you light Sound travelling over the time Sound flying over the time A lifetime diving deep Thousand feelings, one to me
14.
Prelude 02:24
15.
Kara bahtım kem talihim Taşa bassam iz olur Başım bir Erciyes dağı (yavru yavru) Yaz günleri kış olur Ben feleğe neyledim Kırdı kanadımı heder eyledi yar yar yar Ağustos'ta suya girsem Balta kesmez buz olur Yüzyaşında bir yar sevsem (yavru yavru) Onücünde kız olur Ben feleğe neyledim Kırdı kanadımı heder eyledi yar yar yar
16.
17.
Twoje oczy, twoje oczy, twoje oczy Twoje oczy nie widzą jeszcze wszystkiego wszechświat i to jak jest zbudowany wynurza się przed tobą z półmroków Twoje oczy, twoje oczy, twoje oczy Niewiadoma staje się wiadomą coraz więcej wiesz Chcesz ciągle więcej ciągle więcej ciągle więcej Jak daleko może sięgnąć świadomość w jednym, jedynym życiu...? Warstwy świata nakładają się na siebie Warstwy świata nakładają się na siebie Warstwy świata nakładają się na siebie niezliczonych warstw tysiące i tysiąc Słońca dwa i Słońc bez liku światów tyle ile świadomości ile gwiazd na niebie ile gwiazd na niebie ile gwiazd na niebie ile gwiazd na niebie ile gwiazd na niebie ile gwiazd na niebie światów tyle ile świadomości światów tyle ile świadomości światów tyle ile świadomości ile gwiazd na niebie

about

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtIyzMB4ELk

E.A.R. are:

Efrén López: hurdy gurdy, fretless e-guitar, e-sitar, 12 strings e-guitar, 1 string e-guitar, theremin, bağlama, voice, erbane, kudüm, bendir, zil, gong, Chinese cymbals, kanjira.

Adrián Perales: drums.

Raül Bonell: Warr guitar.


+++ THE PROJECT +++

E.A.R. (from ἔαρ, the ancient Greek word for spring) is the new electric project leaded by Efrén López, better known as an acoustic multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and music theory teacher in the scenes of World, Traditional and Early Music in Europe and the Middle East.

After working as a session guitarist for more than a decade, he got specialized on traditional instruments of the Middle Ages, the Mediterranean and the Middle East such as: hurdy gurdy, oud (fretless Arabic / Turkish / Persian lute), Turkish bağlama, Afghan rabab, or fretless classical guitar, among many others. That's how he spent the last 25 years, traveling, studying and performing Early and traditional music all over Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia, sharing stage with some of the greatest artists of those styles like: Jordi Savall, Ross Daly, L'Ham de Foc, Trio Petrakis / López / Chemirani, Daud Khan, Parvathy Baul...

After all those experiences, he decided to apply the vast knowledge acquired after decades studing Medieval, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, Indian music systems to an electric context through the experimentation on microtonal scales, odd rhythm measures and other features of various non-Western traditions, combining his electric instruments (e-hurdy gurdy, e-fretless guitar, e-sitar and theremin) with the ones of the two musicians he invited to this exciting new adventure: the powerful, precise drums of Adrián Perales, and the versatile Warr guitar (a sort of Chapman stick or touch guitar) of Raül Bonell, both born like Efrén in the area of València, in the Mediterranean coast of Spain.


+++ THE BAND +++

Adrián Perales' main project, Death Metal band In Mute, is well known in the extreme Metal scene as they were the winners of the Metal Battle —a contest for new bands at Waken, the biggest metal festival in Europe— in 2014. Despite Adrián's versatility (he's not just “another Metal drummer”, his curiosity led him to explore many other styles, playing for songwriters, funk or blues bands as a session drummer), joining E.A.R. challenged him to dig into unexplored fields of intrincated rhythms coming from the Balkans, the Middle East or India, pushing him to find the way to adapt them to his drumset, a process that made him grow exponentialy as a musician.

Raül Bonell is in charge of the Warr guitar, a kind of 8-string Chapman stick or touch guitar played with tapping techinque, capable to produce a wide range of tones, and therefore, able to play many different roles in the songs. This was exactly what we needed to complete the basic sound of E.A.R.
Raül's knowledge of music theory —he's a classical piano teacher— gives him the tools to be as versatile as the repertorie of the band requires. Thus, he can play anything from solid bass lines (“Hortus deliciarum”, “Bourrées de la Carrasca de la Vaca”) to crystal clear rhythmic arpeggios (“Kroki na brzegu”, “Prelude”), and everything in between: atmospheric soundscapes (“Kara bahtım”, “Świadomość”), guitar-like solos (“Mariola”) and even killer djent bass patterns (“Lo berde”).

Efrén López's main instrument in the project is the hurdy gurdy, a rare stringed instrument of Medieval origin that produces sound by a hand crank-turned, wooden wheel rubbing against its several set of strings (chanters, drones and trumpettes or rhythm strings). The wheel functions much like a fiddle bow. The modern electrified version of the hurdy gurdy he plays, processed through all kinds of effects and loopers, is the core of many of the arrangements you will listen in “A æ u å æ ø i æ å, æ i å u å æ ø i æ å?”.
The other half of the sound of Efrén in this album is the fretless electric guitar, played mostly using an e-bow. You can listen its sinuous, haunting sound in “Uşşak saz semaisi”, a classical Turkish Ottoman composition of the 19th Century by ney (reed flute) master Aziz Dede; also in “Kara bahtım”, a traditional Turkish song too, in “Światło + Electronic seeds”, or in the harmony lines of “My safe town”.
Besides these two main instruments, Efrén plays also e-sitar, theremin, bağlama (the main Turkish folk lute), additional vocals and different Indian, Chinese, Iranian and Turkish percussions.


+++ THE ALBUM +++

Definetely, the sound of E.A.R. is all about artistic freedom and creativity. The amount of elements that the trio can blend in one song is really wide, so it might be really hard to tag them in just one pre-existing label or style.
In their first official record, a double album containing 17 tracks called “A æ u å æ ø i æ å, æ i å u å æ ø i æ å?”, they mix elements of progressive rock, metal, ambient, drone music, folk, pop and psychedelia to dress up ancient melodies coming from Turkey, Armenia or Greece, in a organic, natural way, as well as original compositions using odd time signatures based on Balkan Aksak dances (11/8, 9/8, 10/8, 5/8, 7/8) and scales and phrases inspired by modal systems like the Middle Eastern Makam or the Indian/Afghan Raga.

“A æ u å æ ø i æ å, æ i å u å æ ø i æ å?” was recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by Efrén López between June and December of 2018 in two different studios in the area of Valencia.

The sculptures of the band, photos and cover were designed by Turkish artist Lale Altunel. The band's logo was designed by Iván López.


+++ GUEST MUSICIANS +++

Although originally E.A.R. was conceived as an instrumental project, for their first record “A æ u å æ ø i æ å, æ i å u å æ ø i æ å?” (we will discuss the origin of the title later...), they invited some good friends singers to be an important part of it, too.

Iván López is a Spanish composer, producer and vocalist of unusual, androgynous voice with a vocal range out of this world. He sings on three of the titles: his own composition “My safe town”, hypnotic Efrén's composition “Electronic seeds”, and “Reis glorios”, a troubadour song of Guiraut de Bornelh (13th C.) sung in its original language, Occitan.

Eléonore Fourniau is a brilliant French singer and multi-instrumentalist that has become a sort of “folk star” in... Turkey! thanks to her innovative way to approach the Turkish and Kurdish singing techniques, and after many years travelling and working hard on the traditional vocal styles of that area. She's the voice on three of the songs, all them traditional, sung in Kurdish (“Lo berde”), Turkish (“Kara bahtım”) and Armenian (“Mer tan itev”).

Balladyna ↑ Witch is a unique and unclassificable improviser, performer, dancer and writer. Here she sings and speaks in her tongue, Polish, improvising the lyrics of “Kroki na brzegu”, and the intro of “Electronic seeds”. The last track of the album, “Świadomość” was built at the studio just following one of her free improvisations.

Our other guest musicians are:
Sylvain Barou: zourna (a sort of folk shawn of loud, sharp sound, found nearly everywhere from North Africa to India) in “Lo berde”.
Meira Segal: bagpipes (German shäferpfeife in “Khronokrator” and Bulgarian gaida in “Hortus deliciarum”).
Ciro Montanari: tabla (Indian drum) in “Mariola”.



+++ THE TITLE +++

About the album's title, as you might have seen, we love languages and word games (the record features songs and spoken word in Czech, Polish, Kurdish, English, Old Occitan, French, Armenian and Turkish). While searching for interesting language games, we found this sentence in a Danish dialect from Jutland, “A æ u å æ ø i æ å, æ i å u å æ ø i æ å?”, which uses words with only vowels. Besides the funny part of such a sentence, we liked its meaning, too: “I'm on an island into the stream, are you on an island into the stream, too?”. One could take the symbolism of that sentence —and so we do— as a call to keep our integrity, essence and personality against fast changing trends or undesired influences.
That's how we finally found a title that is not only funny (although yes, not commercial at all, we know...) but at the same time, at least for us, deeply meaningful.

credits

released March 21, 2019

E. A. R.
A æ u å æ ø i æ å, æ i å u å æ ø i æ å?

Efrén López (EL):
hurdy gurdy (01, 02, 04, 05, 06, 07, 09, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17), fretless e-guitar (05, 08, 10, 13, 15), e-sitar (03, 05, 13), 12 strings e-guitar (13), 1 string e-guitar (04), theremin (06, 14, 17), bağlama (04), voice (01, 04, 17), erbane (03), kudüm (08), bendir (08), zil (08, 12), gong (10, 15, 17), Chinese cymbals (12), kanjira (12).

Adrián Perales (AP):
drums (01, 02, 04, 05, 06, 08, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17).

Raül Bonell (RB):
warr guitar (01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 08, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17).


Guest musicians (in order of appearance):

Kateřina Göttlichová (KG): voice (01)
Meira Segal (MS): schäferpfeife (02), gaida (11)
Balladyna ↑ Witch (BW): voice (03, 13, 17)
Eléonore Fourniau (EF): voice (04, 10, 15)
Sylvain Barou (SB): zurna, mey (04)
Iván López (IL): voice (05, 07, 13)
Ciro Montanari (CM): tabla (12)


Produced, recorded, mixed and mastered from June 2018 to February 2019 by Efrén López at To Katehon studio (Mas de Flors).
Drum recordings at Millenia studios (València).

Album cover, sculptures and photos: Lale Altunel.
E.A.R. logo: Iván López.

Special thanks to Pasqual Brisa, Denis Teste and Rowan Roodbaert for their support.

CD 1
01. Strč prst skrz krk (1:12)
02. Khronokrator / Xρονοκράτωρ (4:40)
03. Kroki na brzegu (2:38)
04. Lo berde (5:02)
05. My safe town (7:46)
06. Monastioriotiki Baiduska + Western Thrace Instrumental Baiduska (3:28)
07. Reis glorios (7:44)
08. Uşşak saz semâisi (7:37)
09. Que te calles la cabeza (1:01)


CD 2
10. Mer tan itev / Մեր տան իտև (6:33)
11. Hortus deliciarum (6:00)
12. Mariola (5:16)
13. Światło + Electronic seeds (5:16)
14. Prelude (2:24)
15. Kara bahtım kem talihim (6:28)
16. Bourrées de la Carrasca de la Vaca (5:47)
17. Świadomość (6:39)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

01. Strč prst skrz krk
Music: Efrén López / Raül Bonell / Adrián Perales

EL: hurdy gurdy, voice
AP: drums
RB: warr guitar
KG: voice


02. Khronokrator / Xρονοκράτωρ
Music: Efrén López

EL: hurdy gurdy
AP: drums
MS: schäferpfeife

03. Kroki na brzegu
Music: Raül Bonell - Lyrics: Balladyna ↑ Witch

EL: e-sitar
RB: warr guitar
BW: voice


04. Lo berde
Music: Kurdish traditional / Efrén López - Lyrics: Kurdish traditional

EL: hurdy gurdy, 1 string e-guitar, bağlama, voice, erbane
AP: drums
RB: warr guitar
EF: voice
SB: zurna, mey


05. My safe town
Music - Lyrics: Iván López

EL hurdy gurdy, fretless e-guitar w/e-bow, e-sitar
AP: drums
RB: warr guitar
IL: voice


06. Monastioriotiki Baiduska + Western Thrace Instrumental Baiduska
Music: A) trad. Eastern Romilia, B) trad. Western Thrace

EL: hurdy gurdy, theremin
AP: drums
RB: warr guitar


07. Reis glorios
Music - Lyrics: Giraut de Bornelh

EL: hurdy gurdy
IL: voice


08. Uşşak saz semâisi
Music: Aziz Dede

EL: fretless e-guitar w/e-bow, plucked fretless e-guitar, kudüm, zil, bendir
AP: drums
RB: warr guitar


09. No me comas el celebro
Music: Efrén López

EL: hurdy gurdy


10. Mer tan itev / Մեր տան իտև
Music - Lyrics: Armenian traditional

EL: fretless e-guitar w/e-bow, gong
AP: drums
RB: warr guitar
EF: voice


11. Hortus deliciarum
Music: Efrén López

EL: hurdy gurdy
AP: drums
RB: warr guitar
MS: gaida


12. Mariola
Music: Markus Reuter

EL: hurdy gurdy, zil, Chinese cymbals, kanjira, gong
RB: warr guitar
CM: tabla


13. Światło + Electronic seeds
Music: Efrén López - Lyrics: Balladyna ↑ Witch (Polish) / Iván López (English)

EL: fretless e-guitar w/e-bow, e-sitar, 12 strings e-guitar
AP: drums
RB: warr guitar
BW: voice
IL: voice


14. Prelude
Music: Markus Reuter

EL: hurdy gurdy, theremin
AP: drums
RB: warr guitar


15. Kara bahtım kem talihim
Music: Turkish traditional

EL: fretless e-guitar w/e-bow, gong
RB: warr guitar
EF: voice


16. Bourrées de la Carrasca de la Vaca
Music: Efrén López
EL: hurdy gurdy RB: warr guitar AP: drums

17. Świadomość
Music: Efrén López / Raül Bonell / Balladyna ↑ Witch - Lyrics: Balladyna ↑ Witch

EL: hurdy gurdy, theremin, voice, gong
AP: drums
RB: warr guitar
BW: voice

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