THE CHANGELINGS

THE CHANGELINGS produce folky ambient music in the Enya mould, and have just issued their first CD entitled The Changelings (1996 Middlesex 0001). The group is based in Atlanta (USA) and consists of Paul Mercer (violin), Regeana Morris (voice, hammered dulcimer), Nick Pagan (keyboards), Chandler Rentz (percussion, bass guitar) and Damon Young (guitar, tanpura).

The Changelings approach is eclectic, drawing on Baroque, Middle-Eastern and tribal inspiration, and the performance on this 12-song CD is smooth and highly professional. Regeana Morris' voice has an edge (sometimes reminiscent of Miranda Sex Garden) which removes any danger of descent into New Age drippiness.

The most exotic, and best, track is Song of the Sephardim (4) which has beautiful music and singing. It sounds almost like Spanish flamenco to begin with but then takes on a very Turkic quality reminiscent of the Balkan influences in Dead Can Dance. (For parallel tendencies in Early Music, see The Dufay Collective).

I should confess that I've never actually listened to Turkish music to any extent, but I have listened to traditional Hungarian and Macedonian music on which, what I presume to be Turkish influence, is apparent.

Moving away from the sounds of the harem, track 11 is a dreamy East-European-sounding waltz. Track 12 is an appropriately Nico-esque rendering of Lou Reed's 'Sunday Morning', while a supplementary track (not listed on the album cover and not indicating a separate track on CD players) appears to follow somewhere between the footsteps of Vivaldi and Paganini, but perhaps an expert will better enlighten us here.

Like Dead Can Dance, The Changelings produce a dreamy, magical effect akin to a religious experience. What more can one say?

Rik - 31 May 1996

EXTERNAL LINKS

• THE CHANGELINGS
  http://www.changelings.com

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