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Patrcik O'Hearn is an electronic musician exploring the more refined and elegant timbres of the synthesizer. The album Beautiful World (47'58") is full of the bright tones and majestic harmonies O'Hearn has become known for; yet through the employ of earthy, ethnic rhythms and samples, he implants this music in firm soil - never soaring too far from terra firma. Facing the Sun (5'42") opens the disc, landing heavily as its repeating conga slap line intertwines with cycles of electronic swishes, bleeps and clicks - all of it grounded by the fullness of a fluid bass riff. Above these grooves floats an ethereal melody, which gives way to and is ultimately echoed by stacks of lustrous synth tones. The piece resolves wonderfully into Magnificent River (5'42"), which begins with calm, reverberant piano notes. This contemplative moment leaps into a more dramatic space with the introduction of multi-layered rhythms of clinking, clanging percussion, a walking bass and lazily strummed guitar, the resounding open chords responded to by washes of tamboura. Chance (4'50") follows and with its slowly sweeping modulations and sustained mood, offers repose and contemplation. Beautiful World continues on in this fashion - blooming and sustaining, then contracting... up and down, over and under, at an expertly-paced rate. The seven tracks on Beautiful World portray a world lit by sun, moon and stars - made new by sound and spirit - emerging out of O'Hearn's global tonalist dream as vivid jewels full of lightness and hope.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 27 November 2003 |
