anantakara
I love music that surprises me by its creativity, its originality and the induced experience it creates in me.
this is exactly what happens here. an astonishing musical universe where you can lose your footing with happiness. A very rare album!
Favorite track: World Inverted.
WORLD INVERTED
into that world inverted
where left is always right,
where the shadows are really the body,
where we stay awake all night,
where the heavens are shallow as the sea
is now deep, and you love me.
Elizabeth Bishop
HEAVENS CLOTHS
had I the heavens’ cloths,
with golden and silver light,
the blue and the dim and the dark
of night and light and the half light
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W. B. Yeats
UNDERNEATH THERE IS
underneath
there is
but we forgot
how to listen
embrace the bottom
what is there
still
breath into everything that was and could have been
into things that never were
—
the heat is way too much
let us sleep on the floor
and let us feel and hear
the sighs from underneath
the surface bleeding deep
dive down to rise above
Maarja Nuut and Hendrik Kaljujärv (AKA Ruum) have always defied convention. Defied categorization too. Born out of a series of phone conversations in 2016, their musical collaboration has floated between genres and styles like an ever-shifting shadow. Their full length debut, 2018’s "Muunduja", encapsulated this evasiveness perfectly – the title means ‘shifter’ in Estonian – but new record "World Inverted" takes this idea even further; it makes a virtue of their music’s contradictory nature.
“The world is like this,” says the duo by way of explanation. “Every power has its opposite, and each world has its own world inverted. Our aim is to place these two opposites in one body.” Dealing with the heart and mind, World Inverted is born of their cumulative experiences of art, of each other, of life. It is a singular statement from them as creators, and represents some form of ideal as to how things are.
Tonally rich, "World Inverted" is a visceral record, full of interesting textures and moods. The duo’s abstract electronic soundscapes are softer here, and more delicate. Gone are the abrasive slabs of noise and abrupt shifts in pace; in their place is a quiet, insistent techno, a low level thrum that flows through all seven tracks. Yet the duo conjure a range differing emotions within this framework, creating a sense of mystery and depth: at times, the music is ghostly, blessed with a childlike innocence; at others it’s darkly foreboding and ominous.
Rhythm is central here, both to their ideas and the record as a whole. Opener ‘We Get Older’ sets the scene perfectly, a studio jam that locks into a hypnotic, hazy groove and sounds like a cross between Mo Wax and Boards Of Canada. ‘Circles’ reimagines the chug of a locomotive, the glitchy beat spiralling in on itself as a distorted violin wails in the distance, while the ethereal opening of ‘Underneath There Is’ gives way to the rumble of an underground march complete with trumpet blares and rallying cry vocals.
It’s one of the few times Nuut’s voice really comes to the fore. Throughout World Inverted, her vocals are a more subdued, spectral presence, like a mist gently drifting through the electronica. Only three tracks here have lyrics, and two of those borrow from poets; the title track takes a verse from Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘Insomnia’, while ‘Cloths of Heaven’ lays the text of one of W.B. Yeats’ most lovelorn poems over a pastoral, ambient wash. Such sentiments add to the emotional heft of their work, and when Nuut takes centre stage the effect is joyously uplifting, like sunlight breaking through a cloud.
There’s also a higher plane to their work, an excavation of the inner self and a celebration of the human spirit. Love is a recurring theme, as is the desire to seek deep and meaningful connections. Such transcendence is found not only in grand, sweeping gestures and the beauty of poetry though. It’s there in the minutiae of life, picked over in ‘Candy Street’; an old gas pump gently creaks on a small, quiet street, planes fly lazily overhead, dreams come and go.
This friction between contrasts gives World Inverted its warmth, and its vitality. And where "Muunduja" was dominated by hidden impulses and fears, and the desire to peer into the shadows, "World Inverted" is laced with fragility and hope and soul. Much like Nuut and Kaljujärv’s collaborative relationship thus far, it is an exploration of humanity, at once both comforting and euphoric. This is the way the world is; they’re just reflecting it back at us.
All music composed and recorded by Maarja Nuut and Hendrik Kaljujärv
Mixed and premastered by Evar Anvelt
Mastered and vinyl cut by Helmut Erler, Dubplates & Mastering
Illustrations and design by Eiko Ojala
Estonian duo Maarja Nuut & Ruum operate in a musical interzone; connecting the
deep-rooted, intuitive worldview of
days past with the hyper-mediated realities
and seemingly limitless technological possibilities of the present and future.
One of my favourite albums (and concerts) of recent times. Brooding, hypnotic and at times quite powerful. Transcending any influence you can ascribe to it. I am looking forward to hearing more.... Dave O)))
A stunning, minimalist contemporary classical piece by the Glasgow-based composer, performed by the chamber music duo GAIA. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 13, 2023