Album review: Moonchild – Voyager
Mo0nchild’s third album Voyager has attributes of a modern classic. Thoughtful composition, flowing narrative and most importantly the ability to play on many emotions. It is just over 45 minutes of positive feeling goodness which is drenched in soul, glazed with Jazz and hints of R’n’B.
As soon as the album starts, it immediately brings warmth and majesty which is immensely captivating. The introductory piece Voyager (Intro) then evolves into the second Cure, which is fairly common device in history of music which involve a collection of pieces under a single overarching work. Moonchild use this to great effect albeit sparingly. It ultimately helps create a flow throughout the album which divides it into what I would describe as 3 acts with an introduction. There’s not much variety between acts, since much variety exists within each, but the narrative is one of losing – yet not in a negative way.
The musicianship of the band is outstanding; the careful consideration of what they were achieving is apparent. The harmony creates such colour and the variety of instruments gives to depth. Amber Navran’s wonderfully soft vocals make the music stand out instead of pushing it to the back. An incredible album from a band that is part of the overlooked Soul resurgence of recent times.
Find Me In The Dark with Kassem Mosse, Peder Mannerfelt, Nick Klein & More
Back in June for a friend’s birthday we went to Corsica studios to catch Sassy J and Orpheu the Wizard at the Columbian – a small club which is annexed to Corsica Studios. It turns out that the night ended up in Corsica’s second room. Simultaneously Find Me In The Dark was hosting Kassem Mosse, Peder Mannerfelt and Nick Klein in the main room so we essentially got tickets to two nights for the price of one.
On arrival we spent the warm up period watching Sassy J and Orpheu warming up the second room. We then moved over to the main room to catch Peder who just played heavy all the way through with seemingly no regard other than to play very fun and odd techno! After his set Nick Klein stepped up, but rather in the small DJ booth where Peder was playing, but on the raised platform which is used as a dance space. I initially thought the person that was there was part of the lighting team, rather than Nick Klein setting up his equipment…
This was my first experience of the man himself after a brief introduction from a friend. I was very impressed as there seemed to be very good contrasts in the set from a live set. The beats ranged from rolling to disjointed and the energy of the room was kept consistently unique from Peder’s hours.
To end the night was Kassem Mosse, someone who I have been keen to catch for a while. His live set was probably the most strange and my favourite – it sounded very original but I am not sure whether that’s because it was after 4am. He played incredibly stripped back electronic music. Jarring would be an understatement and I’m sure it wasn’t what people expected but it worked so well. Ultimately, what started out as a feel good night with good “vibes” ended up as a bewildering techno assault.