When the Cave Comes Alive!!!---An Emerald City--Circa Scaria!

An Emerald City is an amazing New Zealand band that I have neglected to mention until now. I first heard about the group when I stumbled upon Graham Reid's site, Elsewhere, which I would definitely recommend taking a peek at. He definitely has interesting taste in music. I was quite fortunate to get a physical copy of their first album, Circa Scaria, since for at least the time being the item is hard to find. But the album is readily available in digital format, so no worries as to obtaining the music. But I must say the Cd artwork is quite gorgeous.

 

 





Circa Scaria came out in 2009 on  the label Banished By the Universe, which appears to be run by members of the band. The label seemed to be a bit of a mystery to me, but at the letter end of 2013 they have reorganized with a bona fide website and a new distributor. In addition to An Emerald City, there is an interesting and diverse roster of bands, including Mountaineater, James Duncan, Alizarin Lizard, Rackets, and Bond Street Bridge. Well worth checking out the site.

 

For me, An Emerald City is probably one of those odd circumstances where a band is actually playing a type of music that I always wanted to hear but to a great extent has been denied to me. A

mixture of improvisational world music based around Arabic, Indian, African sources combined with noise.

 

Musically they are simply astounding. Trance inducing percussion, at times dubby, capable of subtlety, fantastic use of dynamics. For all comparisons you could make to Kiwi antecedents like Bailter Space, The Clean, Dead C and Roy Montgomery, they have at certain moments that sinister sound of early era Live Skull, or Mission of Burma, or Sonic Youth. With improvisational chops like the Sun City Girls. Or Anne Dudley and Jaz Coleman's Songs from the Victorious City. But these name checks only semi-describe what is going on here.

 

Amazingly Circa Scaria was recorded in an unusual studio. Actually, not a studio at all, but within the Great Cave of Whatipu on the West Coast of Auckland! Per the liner notes, the album was recorded live over a two day period. So they are definitely trying some ambitious things. And succeeding.

 

Reuben Bonner: Guitars, Voices, Percussion

Rob Croft: Oud, Darabukka, Electronics, Sitar, Percussion

Ede Giesen: Persian Long Necked Lute, Acoustic Guitar, Percussion, Voices

Sam Handley: Organ, Guitars, Percussion

Reyahn Leng: Drums, Tabla, Percussion

Felix Lun: Violin, Percussion

 

I was absolutely floored by this album. This is definitely music that more people need to hear, music of the highest artistic calibre. I'm amazed how all the disparate elements here mesh together so well. I wound up getting their other releases (eponymous ep and their 2nd album, Fourth), and they are all great. Circa Scaria--one of the most revelatory recordings for me in 2013, though it came out 4 years earlier.