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Tya
Akwaba
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Whenever I hear someone say some musician is “in the vein of” or “just like” so-and-so, red flags go up and my interest begins to go down. I mean, seriously, if I had the option of having the real thing or some diluted, watered down copycat, wouldn’t I want to go straight to the source?
While comparisons of Tya (pronounced Tee-sha-ya) to Enigma and
Deep
Forest
are certainly not unfounded, they’re not necessarily bad either. Indeed, there are far worse musicians to be compared to.
Enigma and Deep Forest’s (primarily their earlier stuff as their most recent masterpiece, Music Detected, opted for more actual instruments as opposed to electronic) influence is obvious, but main man Martin Scherl pulls it off well. Songs such as opener “Olelo Lohi/Speak Slowly” are ambient and moody, “Rain Dance” sounds peppy and optimistic and, like its influences, has the ability to put the listener in a nice, cozy trance.
As is the case with world-trance music, some songs tend to slip into a sort of jammy groove; some might say they meander a little, as in the case of the tail end of “Nonamata/Long Ago”. This is less a complaint and more an advisory that the album is definitely one to explore when in a certain mindset. If you’re not in the mood to get lost in its keyboards and ethnic samples, you’re not going to get the full experience. Definitely not an album to explore while working out, I found after an aggravating go at my day job (as if you thought this was my day job, if only), I settled into Akwaba quite easily.
I Just recently found out about Sequoia Records and Tya has proven to carry a positive first impression for me. Hopefully, they can keep up the trend.
Release Date: June 01, 2004
Tracks: 13 - Time: 67:40
Produced by: Martin Scherl
Format: CD
Website: Tya
Track Listing:
Olelo Lohi - Speak Slowly / Coming Home / Nonamata - Coming Home / Why / Akwaba - Welcome / Follow the Light / Soft Touch / A Place to Rest / Raindance / Mama / Naked / Daybreak / Why (instrumental).
Tya:
Martin Scherl - Keyboards / World Percussion / Samples / Programming
Pino Barone - Additional Keyboards
Benno Baum - Additional Guitars
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