Julia Kent: Temporal (CD on Leaf Label)

Band: Julia Kent
Label: Leaf Label
Title: Temporal

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Band:Julia Kent
Title:Temporal
Reviewed By:Benjamin Howarth
Date Published:22/02/2019

Label:Leaf Label
Format:CD
Release Year:2019
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The gaps between experimental music, pop music, jazz and classical have narrowed so dramatically in recent years that there is now no meaningful way of sorting musicians between them. In the press photos for her new album, Julia Kent is pictured holding a cello and wearing evening dress. She’d pass the dress code for a concert at the Proms. But the tattoos on her arm and her background playing with Antony and the Johnsons mean she fits in with the indie bands on her record label, Leaf.

Her music does not seem technically challenging to perform (though as I don’t play the cello, I’m hardly qualified to comment). Instead, she evokes the tones and textures of classical within the forms of post-rock and ambient music. Her music is constructed from simple melodies and repetitive, layered lines of cello. Around this, ambient effects and electronic patterns float in and out of your ears.

Each of these pieces was originally composed to accompany a stage production, but shouldn’t be mistaken for background music. The cello is, as everyone knows, an inherently lovely instrument to listen to and deserves to be centre stage. Like the best electronic producers, Kent builds the tension up slowly and then releases it – either with a surge of melody or an unexpected change of mood.

The twelve minute opening track, ‘Last Hour Story’ builds the themes that the rest of the album will explore – layering and stacking themes until you lose sense of how long you’ve been listening. Each of the other tracks is shorter and pick up more contained threads – but none are without surprises, be it the haunting piano on ‘Crepuscolo’ or the twinkling bells contrasting against the basslines of ‘Through The Window’. The overall effect is hypnotic and haunting – imagine the subtler moments of Godspeed You Black Emperor! drawn out and given a life of their own. It’s unusual, but effective.

Track Listing:

01) Last Hour Story
02) Imbalance
03) Conditional Futures
04) Floating City
05) Sheared
06) Through the Window
07) Crepuscolo

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Related Links
http://music.juliakent.com/
http://www.juliakent.com/
http://www.songkick.com/artists/976597-julia-kent
https://twitter.com/juliakent
https://www.facebook.com/juliakent.music
https://www.youtube.com/user/juliaxkent

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Impressive combination of classical music, post-rock and ambience from New York-based cellist Julia Kent

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