Glissando - Loves Are Like Empires

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

5...according to our Brian on Fri 31 Aug, 2007.

Glissando I've been informed are from Leeds. I can't get in their 'Loves Are Like Empires' CD because it's got a wax seal on it's envelope & is embellished with thread & beads. Seeing as though I may be destroying the future of rock by opening this delightful package, I'll hunt elsewhere for sound samples. And all i've got to go on is 2 tracks, 1 as-yet-unreleased beauty called 'Flood' for instance, is bewitching stuff indeed. Taking it's cue from early, ethereal
4AD and apocalyptic Canadian anarcho-classico types Godspeed, this is torch music for the post Bjork generation. I can imagine fans of Cranes loving this. Also Epic 45, with thier use of subtle chamber-enveloping guitar effects, Eno-esque piano/field recordings & a haunting female vocal that is both yearning & forboding But you'll have to check their myspazz for that one. Go see

http://www.myspace.com/glissando

'What the Exultant...' is actually on this CD & is more lo-fi & electronic but nevertheless alarmingly fine. It's her voice, hovering over a bed of whirring glitch & space bleeps, with a warm minimal piano backing. This duo are quite simply one of the most engaging things I've heard for a few months! For fans of This Mortal Coil & Matmos??? On Loom Music

Glissando: Noun - Music.
a continuous slide upward or downward between two notes

The dictionary definition above actually describes the music of Glissando; at its most base level, pretty well. It is very minimal, with often nothing but a single instrument looping and morphing throughout an entire track.

This CD is a collection of recordings between 2002 and 2007. The track list is somewhat misleading, in that the CD is much longer than it would suggest The tracks vary in length between 4 and 30 minutes, adding up to a total of well over an hour of music.

It’s hard to describe the music itself, suffice to say that it needs to be heard, and preferably through a really good pair of headphones. If ever a piece of music deserved the description “dreamlike,” this is it. Deceptively simple, it draws you in and washes over and around you, adding just enough variety into the mix to ensure that the boredom threshold is never reached. This is not background music, it demands your full attention, forcing you to fill in the blanks between the sounds with your own imagination. This is not music for the masses. This is music as art, and is all the better for it.

For the vast majority of people, this is probably pretentious nonsense. Put on a pair of headphones, close your eyes and be taken to another place.

Tracklisting:
1. ....and Before We Knew It Had Happened At All, It Was All Over
2. What The Exultant Heart Calls Good
3. Into Sleep To Create A Flame
4. A Whisper Of The Eye
5. A Fleeting Glimpse
6. Love Or No Love

by Will Slater.