One double album by an avant-garde artist virtually unknown by me represents an opportunity. Two albums by the same artist is something akin to a magical, mystery voyage of discovery. Diamanda Galas I now realise is a musical phenomenon, so you’ll have to throw away your rulebooks, and open your minds and emotions to a performer who is rather special, and very different. Although I’ve heard about this lady, I’ve never heard her music and certainly didn’t know much about her. So I did the research and if you’d like to know more about Galas, then reach for our site features button and read all about her (Diamanda Galas THE WHOLE STORY). The first of the two albums I received is entitled DEFIXIONES, WILL AND TESTAMENT.

The music in this album dramatically and emotionally exposes the little known Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides carried out by Turkey between 1914 and 1923. Galas musically interprets the anger and sorrow of these horrendous events through the words of exiled poets and writers, and her own compositions. Few artists around today are capable of such avant-garde expositions of events and deeply held passions. In my experience the Boxhead Ensemble, Dirty Three and Laurie Anderson (especially her older work) provide similar, albeit more conventional, narrative music that moves like an earthquake. Galas takes the experience deeper and further.

Behind her music is the belief that voice if far more effective than instruments in communicating messages. The album opens with Ter Vogormia and for a few seconds deathly silence before a distant single keyboard note comes closer and closer. Then my first exposure to a Galas vocal that has me pinned back in my chair with true shock and awe… I have never heard anything like it. She possesses an incredible octave scale voice matched to an ability to use it like an instrument, and a devastatingly effective direct conduit of messages from her heart, soul and mind. One moment her voice soars to infinity, and the next it dives to unthinkable depths. So strong is the intonation and expression that immediately you’re struck with the deep solemnity of the subject matter; words hardly matter. Neither do the track numbers since each song melts into the next. The Desert (Part 1) is poetry to music where Galas seems to be trying to communicate words as if from the original male writer’s mouth. It is extraordinary. Galas uses her voice and every vacant breath while she pounds the piano in extreme anger, and rare passion. The Desert (Part 2) reminds me of the uncontrolled wailings of Middle Eastern mourners at a wake, and I can actually feel the pain and suffering through the music. Sevda Zinciri is the signal for some of the most beautiful instrumental passages I’ve ever heard, and warbling piano notes accompanied by a more gentle, contemplative Galas vocal.

I’ve been playing this multi-lingual record continuously for several hours, and will be for many hours more. The message is a simple one: If you’d like to try something very different, totally unique, and with the power to move you to another more fascinating and unique place, buy this record. Hell, I’m still reeling from this musical thunderbolt…

5/5

LA SERPENTA CANTA

The second double album by Galas is a live performance voyage through the Blues, R&B, and several other genres. Opening track, Intro is enough to reveal this lady’s incredible ability to take both song and genre and make them her own. As you listen to this intense blues song, you suddenly understand what the genre was originally all about. Track three, Burning Hell is evidence of her supreme keyboard skills and her acute mastery of jazz improvisation. After several minutes of piano (this is a ten minute track), Galas then adds the vocal icing on the cake. Some icing, some cake! It’s just remarkable. Next track, Baby’s Insane, takes on an altogether lighter tone with playful piano notes and a voice of a black female singer. The piano notes then drill the depths with I’m So Lonesome I Could Die with a vocal that reflects somebody trapped in the darkest cell trying desperately to escape.

Oh hell, you gotta buy this record as well… But hey, if you’re short of cash then the good news is Christmas is coming. So, get your nearest and dearest to buy it for you. Then grab a bottle of whisky with some cut crystal, and lock yourself away for a few hours to experience the musical treat of your life.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a 1988 quote from the lady herself that pretty wells sums up all the above. “My voice was given to me as an instrument of inspiration for my friends, and a tool of torture and destruction to my enemies. An instrument of truth.”

5/5