Sometimes in the album, there are songs like quiet islands awaiting to be discovered. This is true of “Elegy (I)” which grabs you and does not let go. It’s like the meeting between Arve Henriksen and singer Patrick Cassidy as the folklore of a forgotten world. If you can remember or do not feel a shiver through you, I can only advise you to consult your doctor as soon as possible.
The sense of melancholy desolation, which is always present in the musical and photographic production of Hazeldine, continues to be the pivot around which the story develops, featuring the usual piano plots here are completed through the use of new elements. Among the airy symphonic openings of “The lure of the land” and chamber music textures of “Towards tragedy and dissolution” enhanced by an emphasis of the sound of the strings, are declined voice grafts space according to the ethereal singing of “Elegy II” ol ’emphatic starred in “Sixteen zero six fifteen” and “Little Emblems of Eternity”, but also the use of additional instruments such as the trumpet, which is combined with the elegance of the piano melodies in “Fatal ambition”.
elegant and elegiac are descriptions so freely handed out these days that they somewhat lose a little in their meaning. Yet conversely, applied to Antonymes, they somewhat falter and fall short in truly unmasking or rather more, getting to the nub, of the eloquence and sensitivity of expression at play within his compositional craft. Tendered in a delicacy of touch and a sparseness of detail, the result of such a communion is far from slight and light, but fulsome and lush, ‘delicate power’ lifted from his recently released set for hidden shoal entitled ‘(for now we see) through a glass dimly’ is title alone very revealing of this. For here it’s were the coalescing calm of a pausing moment of isolation breathes a reflective sigh to mourn, romance and contemplate in solitude all the time its tenderness and poise tempered in symphonic gestures that backwardly glance to a timeless toning of tongue. As said the track heads up a new EP titled ‘delicate power (in the hands of others)’ that features reworked interpretations by Markus Mehr, Lymark and Marconi Union.
Pure euphony presents Ian Hazeldine from Hawarden / North Wales on his new opus, a dominated by piano and strings dance from worn, meditative ambient and contemporary classical music and a perfectly structured sequence of individual pieces provide an uplifting listening experience, selectively incorporated Winds sequences from the conventional jazz section and the vocal parts of the song artists Joanna Swan, Martine Bijn and Jan Van den Broeke reinforce the melancholy mood and the overall impression of deep relaxation. The chamber orchestra character of production dominated far more than the electronic additions, but the latter sounded superfluous or even distracting in any sequence. (**** ½)
(For Now We See) Through A Glass Dimly holds ten pieces of music which (sometimes) makes my neck hair start raising, goose bumps appearing. The spellbinding, eerie magic is underlined by the spoken word poetry which suddenly appear: “Little Emblems of Eternity” holds words by British writer Paul Morley, presented/intoned by Jan van den Broeke (and Martine Bijn?). What makes (For Now We See) Through A Glass Dimly is…. air, lots of air, patience and relaxation, and silence. Enjoy Antonymes/Hazeldine’s magic silence. Antonymes never rush for the finishing line. This is minimalism done with perfection. Dimmed sounds/songs, maybe. The songs of (For Now We See) Through A Glass Dimly works in a most affectingly way. Hidden Shoal has described the songs on (For Now We See) Through A Glass Dimly to hold ’emotional potency and compositional dexterity that surpasses the body of work that precedes them, drawing you into their evocative world and demanding engagement.’ Let Antonymes’ songs engage you – songs that are ‘transcending a superficially melancholy aesthetic to create something truly life-affirming.’ (Hidden Shoal). You’d better enjoy (For Now We See) Through A Glass Dimly.”