LANDSCAPE
IZUMA - kolorit
(CD,
Siluh)
At first I was sceptic, actually downright,
mistrustful. The idea of another “silent” album of a young guy with an
acoustic guitar and a lot of ideas for songs and a lot of emotions and
thoughts for their content, gives me the creeps. There is just too many of
them around. But then grapped me – somewhere between listening to it on
silent mode at work (so as not to disturb my co-workers) and on full
amplitude mode at home. Interestingly enough, “kolorit” works a lot
better if you play it very loud. Then the songs, which otherwise seem to
crawl back insides onto themselves or into the CD player, probably shy and
introverted as they are, stand out with full force and posture, show what
they are and have their head tall and high.
Then the sound of this CD is also really good, mainly
acoustic guitar, dubbed over itself a lot, with electronics here and there,
and the singing voice of Georg Tran Lap Vinh (who played, sung and recorded
all of this here), all clear, all to the frong, all open and transparent and
easy, enough to convince even the steadfastes pure sound enthusiast that
electronics in music is not always a bad thing. Also his abilites at playing
guitar, his inventiveness with sounds and his ear for sounds help him out a
long way.
But most of all it is those melodies. Those simple,
sometimes hidden, sometimes just consisting of a few notes, then spawning
over various verses, those melodies that make the whole picture change, that
make the sun turn back and come up again even if it is dark night, and that
put a bright and warm light into the room.Sometimes Vinh is a little too
pathetic, a little too exact, a little too much like hundreds of those
Scandinavian songwriter white boys, that are so praised by the academic
music journalist crowd. But Vinh always gets it right in the end. Sometimes
he will even be swinging in an almost samba mood or hinting at a waltz-theme
(“Rough Sheets”).
Vinh sings of his everyday experiences and finds the
depth and the meaning in them, because everyday live is out there to show
you what will be happening to you, only most people are unable to read it.
There are small fragments and figures and structures that will tell you
stories if you let them. Maybe, Vinh has that ability to hear what live is
whispering to him and then transport that into his songs. And it is for us
to listen to the mysteries and enigmas that he is putting forth to us. He
sings of the city (Vienna), the place he lives in, the furniture, the girls
he misses and the ones he meets, trains, his family and childhood memories,
his innermost feelings about religion and live, and superficial matters such
as falling asleep.
Over and over again you’ll find things and ideas and
moments you also have experienced. Walking by the Theseus-Tempel right here
in Vienna or turning over in the morning to find yourself alone. Sometimes
these sentiments sound akward or placative, if you try to repeat them, but
Vinh manages to keep their mystery and their magic where other, lesser
songwriters would have fallen into cliché. He doesn not even shy away from
calling his girl a “maiden” that he will lead through the dangers with a
golden thread. Anyway, he gets away with it, because, seriously, who has not
at least once fallen into the most basic fantasies about romance, and then
again, Vinh is definitel serious about it.
