Faith & Disease Passage to Kunming
Released: June 17, 2003 Origination Year: 2003 Time: 51:27 Tracks: 10 Produced by: Eric Cooley & Scott Colburn Style: Studio Format: CD Enhancement: Enhanced CD Website: None

The characteristic of good gothic ethereal is the inherent beauty of the songs. Subtleties, simplicities, and the underlying gift to make it all an emotionally immersive experience is not an easy thing to accomplish. Passport to Kunming is the interestingly named Faith & Disease’s latest release in an already strong body of musical art. The core appeal of a basic gothic approach is the freedom to pursue and to combine multiple styles into a canvas of sound. Provide the right synthesis of musical blends and lyrics and you have a work that is enduring long after you have taken it out of your player. Ethereal in every thread, the band’s passport to kunming is easily the band’s best.

Passport to Kunming is like an intriguing dream. You wake up from the spell of it and you have a direct connection with the wispy fragments. But then, like smoke and fog, it becomes one with the ‘everything’ that surrounds you and the impact of the dream leaves you with a longing. Once that occurs, you’re left with the inevitable overwhelming sense of loss. You’re acutely aware of something important that takes minutes to diminish only to leave with you a sad sense of departure.

This Projekt release has 9 songs that bring an immediate connection to Love Spirals Downward, the Suzanne Perry years. The soft intro found in every song bring about a mood set, effectual as it prepares the listener for a float down a dark, tree-lined river with the barest hint of moonlight. Every song is gorgeously rendered with memorable openings, flexible, and artistically painted with the vocal range of Dara Rosenwasser, whose haunting voice resonates long after the song has become dreamlike.

The mix and employ of instrumentation brings about an exotic tribal rhythm, almost trancelike in its playback. There is a hypnotic hang in every song that, like a dream, stays with you for a very long time. Mysterious, unreal, and varied, this album begins soft and creates a build that accentuates the depth of songs.

“She’s Got a Halo” begins with a bass drive that merges with softly screeching guitars and overlayed by capturing vocals. The flow continues with the tenderness of “Dyslexia”, which uses quiet rhythms and dreamy tones.

If you want an album of lilting and quietly communicated ethereality, you need look no further. Every song on this magnificent album contains a strong and effective style that will give you much pleasure in the quality of the tunes.

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