There are some albums that have an elusive appeal. They evade genre and roam restlessly just out of reach. Recaptures by Minihi does all of the above. The album could very well be huge. I would have thought TV and film producers sourcing new music for moody soundtracks will be besides themselves with delight at the propect of it. The album definitely chimes with all our downtrodden spirits at the moment and yet there is a quiet ecstasy to its introspective unpeeling of mood and texture.
As to the nuts and bolts it's not jazz, it's not classical, it's not pop, it's not really any genre but you could be coming at the album from any of these areas, throw in electronica for good measure as well, and you'd probably connect on some level via any of these directions.
A percussion duo writing original music, Zands and Louise Anna Duggan might make you think of Portico Quartet a little in their early days. And yet the spread of sound here is not shaped around a hang or sax but is ethereal in an allied way, disciplined certainly. In allowing its internal pulse a great freedom whether directed a tiny bit by vocals or more to the core by vibes, piano, bells, bodhrán even and an ingenious electronic wash the waves of tension and release roil until they against the odds reach a becalmed resolution. A very upfront personal sound that jumps species from musical cell to the pump and rush of blood: it is a record that you've just got to hear.
The next single from the album to be released is 'Lost Takeno'. Recaptures (on Unperceived Records) is a 12 March release
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