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Jayne Demakos - Harp and Voice
- “Harp and Voice,” from Jayne Demakos, is an album that will cause listeners to relax into a peaceful and un-anxious state. Demakos has taught and performed music for over 25 years and on this album her prowess shows in spades. Her experience in music also includes being a choral director and a capella singer. Her harp work accompanies her vocal tone, which goes from soft to sonorous throughout the record.
The second track starts off with sweet harp music where listeners can hear Demakos as she strums the individual strings of the instrument. The melody of the song is very meditative, making it a song that could have been featured in the motion picture version of “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
On the fourth track a woodwind instrument accompanies Demakos's engaging harp skill. The beautiful rhythm of the instrument is contrasted by Demakos’s deep vocals as she quickly emotes about close companions and keeping them near with lines like, “Make circles of friends…Travel together.”
The fifth track has Demakos slowing down the harp instrumentation, which makes the tone of the song even more ruminative. But the message of the track is a serious one as she speaks of an olden incarnation she feels lives inside of her that is bursting to come out. She gently speaks: “An ancient she bear lives in my skin…She has raged…This morning she wants to lumber…I did contemplate endless sleep this morning…Looked out into the Vermont woods…Still we are all animals…We lick our ancient wounds in a cave of winter…It’s a kind of birthright.” It seems Demakos is trying to alert listeners to the primeval beast that resides in us all that is yearning to be free. The intermittent harp play brings some levity to the song, but the steely message Demakos emotes will hold listeners’ attention and not let go.
Jayne Demakos’s “Harp and Voice” is filled with brooding symmetry designed to make listeners think about elemental things and relax at the same time. Her voice goes from tranquil to quite strict throughout the album, which gives each song a distinct tone which listeners will enjoy.
Reviewer: Sari N. Kent
new
Reviewer's Rating: 8
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Added: 26-Aug-2007
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