Jazz Archives

Hard to list the music of Azigza under a specific musical genre. Prog ? Not really but a highly original effort in any case. It's a mixture of progressive rock, classical music, folk with eastern influences and even some fusion. Some prog listeners will find it strange that there's no keyboards present in the line up but this is no problem at all. The songs are mainly driven by the voice and the stunning violin, viola and cello parts. But also the other instruments are handled very well. The electric guitars, mandolins, sitars are mainly used to support the excellent melodies and barely come to the front unlike the pumping bass lines. The line-up includes 3 percussionist who ad lots of variation in the percussion without getting the focus too much on the percussion. Unlike you could expect with a so many instruments around, the sound is not overblown by too many musical parts playing at the same time. The names of Lisa Gerard and even Toyah come to mind when hearing the gorgeous vocals of Cyoakha Grace but her voice is sounding a lot more eastern and is a delight to listen to especially when she reaches the higher tones. The music is very light and uplifting and suitable to be listened at on a beautiful summer morning. Most songs hold several changes in mood and atmosphere varying from esoteric or dreamy to sensual or even sharp in the up-tempo excerpts. The mysterious sounding tracks are compelling all the way. I suppose this will not be everyone's cup of tea. Sometimes their sound is reminiscent to Curved Air while the unledded album of Jimmy Page & Robert Plant comes to mind when hearing the magnificent cover version of "friends" a Led Zep track. These similarities are minor, for a first album, this sounds rather unique. If you like to listen to violin, lovely female vocals and you 've got an open mind to ethnic music then this album is something for you.

:::Review by Fishy:::

Azigza - Azigza (2002)

1. Glass (5:11)
2. Remember (5:24)
3. Petra (8:18)
4. Touch Moon Window (8:01)
5. Ratzinitza (3:55)
6. Distance (5:48)
7. Zaman (6:13)
8. Friends (6:22)
9. Edallah ya Rashidi (6:52)

Credits
- Kevin Evans / violin, viola, cello, harp, acoustic guitar, tenor guitar, mandolin
- Cyoakha Grace / vocals
- Stephan Junca / drums, djembe, doumbek, guiro, bongos, assorted percussion
- Pierce McDowell / bass, sitar, tamboura
- Raja / tabla, kanjeera, djembe, zils, drums assorted percussion
- Pedra Rivera / djembe, doumbek, conga, shakers, zils, assorted percussion