Dawn of Midi - First

Dawn of Midi - First

I was surprised to receive an email from Aakaash Israni, the bassist from this free improvising trio known as Dawn of Midi. It seemed that I had been chosen (or so I thought) to review this CD on my blog due to my connection with music and of naturally my blog, not so. But however, it was of course a nice surprise to receive such an interesting CD of improvised music, and of course as a musician, and complete fanatic and collector of all styles of music, another CD never goes amiss in this household!  

In this day and age the first thing you do when checking out a band or new/old release is 'Google' it. To my surprise, I found quite a list of blogs with reviews already written. Most, in fact all, praised the CD, and in some cases even wrote essay length critiques, most of which could of been accepted as PHD's if at university. However ........

The CD (their first I believe) :

Dawn of Midi is a trio based in New York, although I notice that Aakaash is living in Paris. The trio consists of  Qasim Naqvi (drums and toys), Aakaash Israni (bass) and Amino Belyamani (piano). The music is improvised, but having said that, what makes this group interesting is it's accessibility in terms of free music. The group approaches it's music much along the same lines as Mujician, an improvising super group that plays free jazz, yet remains highly listenable. Dawn of Midi seem to approach their music from the same direction, the results on this CD being a set of 10 improvisations that one could almost call miniatures. Each track works a particular atmosphere and idea like an artists sketch that gradually becomes a picture, and the atmosphere that dominates the record is one of complete tranquility, which in the world of improvised music is something which is not often expressed at such length.  One could write a detailed description of each track on this CD, but somehow this seems unnecessary, the improvised music here is often melodic and so throws up references (inspires comparisons) - glittering piano arpeggios on Civilization of Mud and Ember evoke for me Messiaen's - 'Vingt Regards ......', as does much of the music. There are pulsing rhythms on Hindu Pedagogy and sparse scuffling bass and drums that brew like a storm on In Between.  My one criticism would be to say that it's a shame they didn't try a few longer pieces (*)  letting the music play itself out and develop even further, but then again that's just the way I would have gone.

All in all there is much to enjoy here and anyone who want's to find something new (meaning something that excites the senses) will find plenty of beautiful moments here. Not only will you find yourself being absorbed by the music, but you'll probably find yourself feeling most relaxed after such a voyage through these lovely soundscapes.

Difficult to chose just one track to represent the CD, however I went for this one because of the title Civilisation of Mud and Ember.

(*) The last piece In Between does this and clocks in at 11+ minutes.

For more information check out the CD label's website ACCRETIONS.
Or the bands website, of course.