The musical world of Markus Mehr is really a place to go explore. I’ve been amazed and chilled by Mehr’s music on several occasions, with albums such as On (2012), Off (2013), and Binary Rooms (2014). This time around some other artists explore Mehr’s music, or song, as they have remixed his track “In The Palm of your Hand” (from his last album, last year’s Binary Rooms).
I would be foolish to deny that Kramies has hung in my ears for almost two years, since the virtually ectoplasmic presence and ethereal beauty of the sound of his “Wooden Heart”, audible and visual twice, one by the excellent work of Jerome Sevrette for the artwork, and the other for the imaging facility inspired by the sounds and the same person Kramies, frail seated figure in his chair, as a small kid shaggy blond on the scene, powerful simplicity, fragile in the vastness.
Todd Tobias is a musician and engineer associated with various Guided By Voices/Bob Pollard projects, but lately he’s been carving out a solo career doing more ethereal instrumental material and soundtracks. Tristes Tropiques is a strange, mystical sound painting filled with eerie vocal loops (particularly on the opening and closing tracks), reversed and decaying guitars, and sometimes beats. Definitely has a soundtrack-like feel, especially the way the tracks segue, suggesting changing scenes. The album’s title translate to “sad tropics”, and it definitely conjures up feelings of being blue in paradise, for whatever reason. Sometimes it gets really dark and foggy, other times it’s brighter, with chiming guitars, but it’s still kind of melancholy. All of this is nice and serene.
This is a dream. An American dream. That of an artist still little known among us but which could become the next big revelation of independent music. Kramies is a singer born in Ohio and currently living in the mountains of Colorado. At 14, he received a guitar as a gift for Santa Claus. This is the beginning of a long love story between the young American and the instrument so inspiring.
April 8, Kramies was happening on the stage of the Grand Théâtre d’Angers, opening Group A Singer Must Die. Exceptional service, where training conducted by Manuel Ferrer was accompanied by the Chamber Orchestra of Anjou, in his symphonic dimension. “Forests Antiques” is the uptake concert by the American songwriter, and includes some tracks of these EPs The Wooden Heart and The Fate That Never Favored Us (products and accompanied by Jason Lytle Grandaddy).
