Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
“The trouble is, you think you have time”, the occasion is such that few of us truly take the positive step to go out into the world and create something insanely beautiful that it will actively unite people from different countries and who will undoubtedly have different ways of expressing their thoughts. We all want a place in the future, the recognition for being active in the present and yet we are hampered with almost unbearable crushing pessimism that our past will get in the way, that it will stop us from enjoying the sense of Trikala, the sense of humanity’s relationship with those three ghostly shades of Time.
It is in Time that Simon Thacker places his trust in, time as a physical entity portrayed by 13 musicians, an occupying memory that comes out of the darkness of uncertainty and resides fully formed after three years as a piece of music spread across two C.D.s which is astounding, immersive and genuinely cool.
Simon Thacker must not only be applauded for this creative endeavour, he should be openly admired, fully and comprehensively. To collaborate on such a project is undeniably incredible, to bring musicians and artists from India, Bangladesh and Europe, to merge the symbolism of differing cultures, to weave together the traditions of possible differing views, beliefs, musical philosophies, is to either be a magician, or a conductor, a poet with a wide-ranging view and who can turn in the sense of the spectacular.
With contributions from artists such as Raju Das Baul, Sunayana Ghosh, the ever remarkable Justyna Jablonska, Sarvar Sabri, Jacqueline Shave, Neyveli B. Venkatesh and Farida Yesmin, the near Herculean task to separate the sections of music into strands of the bountiful and the exquisite Each track seems to stride happily in each camp, cajoling, encouraging, unifying. In songs and instrumental asides such as Panchajanya, The Fire of Intention, Vande Mataram, Nirjanavana, Helay Helay Din Sajao, Keno Dubli Na Mon, Prabhava, Pakhi Kokhon Jani Ure Jay and Hari Din To Gelo, this extended reasoning of Folk merged in the inspiration of different cultures is more than welcome, indeed it is a matter of smooth symbiotic genius.
Time is what we all have, but Simon Thacker’s Svara Kanti is a class apart when it comes to exploring the moment between each tick of the clock.
Simon Thacker’s Svara Kanti’s Trikala is available now.
Ian D. Hall