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As Helios, the music of Keith Kenniff has the ability to make our world appear to be a better place. With the 12 tracks on his release Veriditas (45'27") he takes the listener with him into a liminal space. The experience proves as magical as one would expect. These arrangements portray a wide open realm of the imagination, where the main consolation is the feeling of being energized - not through rhythm or beats, but by the overlapping realities of multiple realms. Veriditas is a gorgeous, contemplative, deliberate ride. With its slowly spiraling triads and prowling bass, ghostly assemblages of drifting electronics coalesce to form big major chords or mysteriously minor ones. The restless searching of harmonies - which takes the ear in a pleasant way - produces a moody reverie. As our thoughts circle within this oxidized eerie beauty, a wayward soul slowly swoons - and a wistful easygoing air heightens the wonder. As grainy detail recedes behind vivid sonic gestures, the crawling tempo, gradual chord progressions and drawn-out notes push through cavernous reverberation as Veriditas strains against the EM form. When it comes to the music of Helios, we should set aside our music history, and just listen. His work resides in an open intellectual forum, one far more likely to help us understand and embrace new ideas than to obliterate them. But more people should recognize this wondrous world, where a love of being alive, a love of our humanity, is essential in itself.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 18 October 2018 |
