KHALE -
sleepworks
(CD, own)
It is the little things in which bliss lies, or so the
saying goes, which effects eventually that a lot of good things arise but go
by mostly unnoticed. In the last months Own Records from Luxembourg has
released a bunch of wonderful little pop masterpieces and nowhere have I
read about them. Therefore I am planning to redo this universal error in the
next weeks (and hope I am able to) and the start is Khale’s
“sleepwork” from May of this year.
Khale is the collaboration of singer-songwriter Kael
Smith with electronic multi-instrumentalist (no, that doesn’t mean he is
actually really an electronic instrumentalist, but that he is well versed on
various instruments with a focus on electronic equipment and sounds…) Jme
White and Matt Heron on piano and other stuff. The collaboration’s basis
are Smith’s own compositions, but of course any band that has one major
songwriter nevertheless adds a certain something to the resulting songs and
their sounds so the whole idea of songwriting-credits is always somewhat
skewed. But it is easy to call on “respect to whom respect is due”,
whereas to work out the details and percentages is always heavy. Force me to
do a rough estimate and I’d say this 67 % Smith, 34 % White and 27 %
Heron. Yes, the numbers don’t add up, but that is either statistical
roughness or due to the fact that music can’t be measured in statistical
terms.
Most of all beauty cannot be put into measures. On
“sleepworks” there is a big amount of beauty, even if it is hidden
inside various layers of music, lush and lanquid arrangements that wash over
the melodies, while nobody dares to make the grande ideas stand up and shout
for what they are worth. No, Khale rather reduce the volume and the force of
the arrangements and make the songs float by like a silent ship in a dark
night, like a dream. But, for instance, when the female vocals come on
during “the living desert” or the Flaming Lips like melody of “meanwhile, as I
await guests” there are sparks of pristine beauty, no fireworks or
explosions, but that kind of beauty that has a soft impact, won’t be
fotographed because it doesn’t seem so spectacular at first, but will stay
in your memory forever. Because memories of perfect moments just stay on for
much longer than any kind of superficial experience or adventure ever will,
no matter how well organized, scripted and documented it will ever be.
Slow and slowly evolving, sometimes almost at a
standstill – perfectly crafted on the slowly winding and echoing “my
little sister’s curiosity” – the title “sleepworks” is perfectly
fitting. Mostly the tracks walk that fine line between waking and sleeping
that comes late at night at home alone or Sunday afternoons. When the songs
start to sound as if they are over, the transcending noises take over and
make the feeling last several moments longer, to retain the feeling of
floating on dreams for some moments longer, with softly washing noises and
the gentle pulse of something both organic and spiritual. I sense it more
than I know, that to overcome the western dialectic of opposites is
somewhere deeply rooted in these musicians. Beats and percussions are rare
on here, but a gentle swaying dynamic keeps a steady pulse throughout.
You probably haven’t heard that intricate mix of
guitar based songwriting and electronic noises so beautifully and minimal
since Mitchell Akiyama’s folk project Avia Gardner or the time when it was still
possible to purchase albums on intr_version around here without too much
hassle. And yes, I do have a big box of records that is tagged with
“ephemeral sounds for all kinds of lazy Sunday afternoons”, what I lack
is Sunday afternoons that contain spare time. But I have a lot of late
nights with not a lot to do, and “sleepworks” is perfect for those
moments between waking / working hours and finally getting ready to go to
bed as well.
