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Shalabi Effect | The Trail Of St-Orange

Surrender to Shalabi Effect. Hail to the new leaders of contemporary improvisation and beyond.
CD, Alien8/PIAS

Tekst: Bas Ickenroth

Publicatiedatum: 14 september 2002

One of the most estranging and leftfield bands of the fertile Montreal grounds that has already grown an infinite number of great avantgarde releases, has to be Shalabi Effect. This quartet, named after its founder Sam Shalabi (who released a tremendous solo record called On Hashish just a couple of months ago), debuted in 2000 with a double-cd filled with long explorations into a psychedelic droneworld, and created the unworldly atmospheres with use of traditional Eastern instruments as oud and tablas, together with guitar and upright bass. The self-titled debut was one the best albums of 2000.

Instead of continuing their self-induced state of trance, which would have been the easy and most expected way, on The Trail Of St-Orange they don't limit themselves to just being psychedelic. And because the album so different from the first one, I have to admit I was kind of knocked off my feet the first couple of times. The long, ongoing explorations are hardly present on The Trail Of St-Orange. Luckily, after more than a few listens, I suddenly saw the light.

The Trail Of St-Orange is much more diverse in everything, as well as being more extreme. The intimate passages are softer, the louder parts have become almost pure noise. The space between the sounds is much more used as an equally important instrument. The build-ups are totally unpredictable, you just never know what's waiting behind the next corner. And there are a lot of corners here. It's obvious that Shalabi Effect not even for once took the easy way out. This time the inspiration wasn't only drawn from Eastern drone improvisations. While that aspect still has an important place in their sound, it's easy to hear influences from free jazz like The Art Ensemble Of Chicago at its wildest, as well as from the European school of improvisation, like AMM. The improvisations by all four of them goes a lot further than any note on the debut album would have made you imagine. And every time you listen to album you discover something you think it wasn't there before.

Shalabi Effect has transformed. From psychedelic improvisations that were still not far away from more conventional songwriting to this outbreak of creativity in the field of pure improvisation without -any- limits. The Trail Of St-Orange is a difficult an very demanding piece of work. Without the ability to completely open yourself for new musical experiences, it will be virtually impossible to fully appreciate this immense piece of work. But once you do, there's no escape. Surrender to Shalabi Effect. Hail to the new leaders of contemporary improvisation and beyond.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/shalabi-effect/the-trail-of-st-orange/1861/
Meer Shalabi Effect op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/shalabi-effect