English Review @ Andrew Chalk / The River...

Full title of this CD is “The River that flows into the sands”.
It is the second release from Faraway Press in 2005.

Daisuke Suzuki introduced that this CD should belong to the best three works that Andrew Chalk has ever created.
I agree to his opinion, absolutely.

Andrew himself describes this album using a sentence;
“It has a sad flavor though not a depressing one”.

This album contains five pieces.
Each of them has a length ranging five to fifteen minutes.

Beautiful and melancholic drone is generated through bowing strings of electric guitar.
Sounds are placed in harmony for realizing emotional texture in music.

Each piece seems to relate to a concept “The River that flows into the sands.”

The title “The River that flows into the sands” suggests a way of destiny.
A water stream entering to the sands is destined to disappear.
It is a sad destiny as Andrew suggested in his words.
Track one through four represent mood reflecting such an aspect of water in sands.

But, the track number five represents rather positive mood.
The positive atmosphere seems to reflect a will of the river.
The river seems to have figured out its destiny after flowing to the sand.
The river seems to accept the destiny and recall all history that it experienced in instance before its disappearance.

The river seems to even thank to phenomena that it experienced before its return to nothingness.
It is so impressive for me that Andrew reached high point where he can express such a rich emotion in sounds.

As Daisuke said, this is a real masterpiece.
This view does make absolute sense, because sounds developed to atmosphere reacting to our emotion and memory in a physical phenomenon as "The River that flows into the sands".

Technology tends to confuse art in present generation, I believe.
Music in this CD works as a light that penetrates our brain and normalizes our perception for art.