Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Physically we are more than just a single person bound together by bone and skin, psychologically we are more than the sum of our parts, we are complicated, we are problematic, confounded by beauty, confused by our place in the overall scheme, determined to be the best we can, but finding we cannot deal with the guilt that it takes to stand out; it is almost as if this one life we have is barely enough to deal with all that is thrown at us, all that is expected, and all we desire.
To have Nine Lives may be the exclusive territory of the feline, but is something humanity could do with, a re-incarnation perhaps, but without the need to learn all once more, and to certainly avoid selfish childhood petitions and cravings. Nine Lives, just what could we achieve if we had the chance to continue our own works beyond our expected years.
Of course, the point of life is not to live in a dream, but to seize the opportunity that comes our way in the present, and for Jova Radevska and Mark Vernon, Nine Lives is the realisation of success as their project Yova stands out in the moment and asks of the listener to feel the music inside, to not just listen, but to really allow each note to merge, to infuse and appeal.
Across tracks such as Where There Is Smoke, Togetherness, Would I Change It? (If I Could), An Innocent Man, and Haunted, and with contributions from Terry Edwards, David Rhodes, Anne Phoebe, Alex Thomas, BJ Cole, Ian Olliver, Nick Holland, Daniel O’Sullivan, and Rob Ellis, the music created by the group is one of cohesion, one of soft interlude, as if the sensitivity of sound had found a way to be explained by an angel of good intentions.
The album is one of curiosity, unexpected pleasure, a wave that comes roaring on and driven by the foam of horses in the shape of a tsunami but when it arrives is in fact surrounded by the gentleness of expression, and it is an experience to enjoy beyond this one life we have, that we cling to, that we must do all that we can to preserve.
Yova find the place between an undistilled free form of expression and that arrangement of progressive passionate unreserved adventure; the insistence that the song take its own course whilst conceding nothing to those that insist that music has to be organised to within an inch of its life. Playful, thought-provoking, clearly set out and curious in its own domain, Yova have released an extension of their own souls that has more than nine lives.
Yova release Nine Lives on March 25th. Ian D. Hall