Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips

4...according to our Brett on Thu 06 Aug, 2009.

Masaki Batoh is the mainman of the fantastic Ghost and Helena Espvall is in the very nice Espers so it was no surprise that the first LP they did together last year was a highly enjoyable (if slightly unfocused) 'round the world trip that stopped off at various country's traditional folk train stations and threw a suitcase of avant-garde mentality all over their irritatingly unmanned help desks. Particularly amazing was Batoh's rendition of Son House's 'Death Letter Blues' which was a fairly hilarious choice for a Japanese man from a phonetic point of view. Overloaded Ark follows a similar sort of pattern with its mixture of original compositions and traditional songs from all over the shop, disparate folk traditions brought together by the duo's hazey acid-psych sound and gentle experimental leanings. Lovely work that fans of Six Organs of Admittance will want to have a little shufty at, brought to us all by the fine people at Drag City.

To play these clips you need to either update your browser (Norman Records recommends Google Chrome) or update your Flash plugin.

Further along the path of musical friendship that Helena Espvall
and Masaki Batoh have discovered for themselves, we find
‘Overloaded Ark’ ready to sail. And indeed, a new and better
society might be provided for with all that they’ve packed on board.

Espvall and Batoh have come prepared for anything, armed with
acoustic and electric guitars, cello, renaissance harp,
organ, sho, banjo, electronics, recorders, piano, hurdy
gurdy, frame drums and several more obscure instruments
such as auschpfeife, crumhorn, cornamuse, darbuka, and
rig. Listen for them! But look them up first, so you know what
you’re listening for. There are vocals as well, sung mostly by Helena
but also with Batoh’s empathetic support. They are backed by two
of Batoh’s Ghost mates, Kazuo Ogino and Junzo Tateiwa, and
joined by ancient music specialist Haruo Kondo.

As on their first album, ‘Overloaded Ark’ features a trove of
traditional and ancient music alongside self-composed explorations.
Songs from many cultures and ages are in evidence, from
Scandinavian folk to German madrigal to French and Italian
medieval court dances and even a good old Latin hymn. Nearer our
present day, ‘Sueño Con Serpientes’ is a cautionary tale from
the legendary Cuban protest singer Silvio Rodriguez, and ‘Sham
No Umi’ is a Batoh solo piece from the mid 90s.

‘Overloaded Ark’ is a gentle and expansive trip, fusing the
sounds of east and west, new world and old into a new epic for all
nations.

Tracklisting:

Little Blue Dragon * Overloaded Ark * Until Tomorrow *
Sueño Con Serpientes * Pro Peccatis Suae * Gentis / Nun
Fanget An * Tourdion * Over The Luminous Land * Vem
Kan Segla * Sham No Umi