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Son Kite - Prisma (Iboga Records)


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Hmm how interesting. It sure has been a long time since their last album. I wonder how it will sound like. Something close to Colours, their other alias Minilogue which tends to be a lot more minimal stuff, or something new/mixed. Can't wait to hear it.

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Oh I know that they have been minimal since whenever, I was just fooling around. I really liked their Blomma album.

Which reminds me I love these videos of them:

 

 

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pre-ordered, what a treat, at this price on LP is really worth!

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If memory serves me well they had an album waiting to go for BNE back in 2008... and these days the duo is pursuing solo projects as I understand it. Does that suggest the material for this album might be old? (Not that that would be a problem...)

 

Reference: http://www.psynews.org/forums/index.php/topic/51326-son-kite-sun-project-join-yoyo-records/

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yep, you’ve heard right. New Son Kite album – available on both CD, digital download and vinyl.

 

 

Tracklist:

1. Contact
2. Transition
3. Eye see You

4. Travel Blind

5. Chihiro 61298
6. Synesthesia
7. In flux

 

 

 

This ritual is built into our DNA
Son Kite is back, releasing their first album in ten years on Iboga Records.

The duo Son Kite is on a mission. It burns through everything they say and is clearly expressed in their way of making music and performing.
“Dancing is a very important ritual. Our main mission as artists is to make people get into this trance state”, they say.

The Swedish trance duo released their third album “Colours” back in 2004. Since then Marcus Henriksson and Sebastian Mullaert have been touring the world and releasing albums with their other project Minilogue, gaining increasing popularity in the house and techno scene.

This November they are returning to the roots, releasing their fourth Son Kite album, “Prisma”, on Iboga Records; the first Son Kite album in ten years.

“Prisma” is their first album ever to have been produced over a long time span. One of the tracks is from 2007. Two of the tracks are made two months ago. Each of the seven tracks encapsules the feelings of that particular moment in time and captures the development they have been going through over the past seven years. Hence the title.

“You send white light into the prism, and you have all these rainbow colours coming out. It’s still the same source, it’s still us, but it’s flavoured by all these years of evolution”, Marcus says.

In many ways the album is like going back to the foundation of the musical journey for the two Swedes. Back to the enthusiasm and endless energy they felt when they first started making music together in 1996. Back to the use of analogue equipment (including releasing the album on vinyl). And back to what it’s all essentially about, according to the duo: Getting into the all-important ritual of the dance and the trance state. A ritual that is as important as ever in our modern world, where we are constantly bombarded with digital stimuli, new distractions and non-stop demands to want something.

“Many people have lost their connection to why we are here and what we are doing here as human beings. Hunting for money, fame and achievements is what we learn in school, and it’s very easy to just get lost in this hunt without even being aware of why we are not happy doing it. That’s why it’s so important to get into the dance ritual and let the the stress out”, Marcus says.

“This ritual is built into our DNA. We are supposed to do it, and we have always done it. African natives do it a couple of times a week. Something important happens when we dance to hypnotic drum patterns for several hours. It gives us more energy and fuels us with creative ideas. It’s healing, like yoga and meditation. It’s so important that we know this and don’t forget our roots,” Marcus says.

The album reflects a lot of the discoveries and realizations they have made during their 20 years on the electronic music scene.

“Back in the 90s when the techno revolution started, the whole thing was underground. It wasn’t about styles and genre, but more about a gathering on secret locations that felt new and refreshing and was a really strong experience for everyone. But then the scene evolved and changed and became popular in the mainstream. Parts of it reached the overground and turned into club culture. That was good for a while, but then the money striving and the business models took over and transformed into standard club nights with the typical setup and the typical dj’s and the same thing week in and week out. And those modern industry standards for clubs and techno are not enough for our souls”, Marcus says.

He saw this development happening within himself.
“When Son Kite took off we were playing at underground parties all over the world. Then we started Minilogue which became very popular on the techno and house scene, and we began playing with superstar dj’s like Sven Väth and Richie Hawtin and got to see all these huge clubs in Ibiza and big festivals all over the world. Obviously I really enjoyed it to begin with. But I lost myself in it. The ego was building up, hunting the money and the fame, and I lost the connection to why I was doing it in the first place. It took me a while to realize this. It was a real eye opener,” says Marcus.

“Prisma” is about finding the way back again, reconnecting with the original spirit of the electronic music scene, being fully present in the now and losing the ego on the dancefloor. And to get into that state of trance, you have to dance for many hours, not just one or two, like the typical club set.

“There is a lot of music out there that triggers people’s restlessness. It’s a reflection of our modern society. We have so many stimuli coming so fast at us that our attention spans are getting shorter and it’s getting harder and harder for us to wait for anything. We want to challenge that restlessness with our music. We want the people dancing to face it inside themselves”, Sebastian says.

With the increasing popularity of the electronic music over the last ten years, the restless energy on the dancefloors has increased, the duo points out, with dj-sets filled with incessant peaks, constantly hunting for those explosions and “hands in the air” moments. This turns into a self-perpetuating pattern with the crowd getting addicted to the hit effect, projecting restless energy back to the dj who in turn starts using bass drops and other ego-boosting tricks every 5 minutes, trying to get a reaction and please the crowd.

“It’s very difficult to stand in front of an audience of 20.000 people who wants this nervous energy and not be seduced into giving it to them. But we really believe that the task of a good dj is to help the crowd let go of that restlessness and the ego and get into the trance”, says Marcus.

Marcus and Sebastian both meditate daily, and preferably before they go on stage, too.
“As an artist you have responsibilities. When you are placed in the center of everyone’s attention, people respond to the energies you send out, and if you are insecure or sending out energies that are all about manifesting yourself, you can easily forward your own unbalance to everyone and thereby hurt the whole. That’s why it’s really important to get in touch with the deeper stillness. Meditation, yoga and dancing are ways to do that,” Sebastian says.

“Dancing for eight hours and really uniting with the music is a reminder that this is how it could be with everything you do in life. It’s such a wonderful feeling to be one with what you’re doing, to really melt into the experience. That’s why it’s so extremely important for us to inspire people to reach that feeling. It’s a tool to really connect to life. The sound of our music is formed by this aim”, Sebastian says.

Releasing the album on vinyl has been very important to the duo, as well as using analogue equipment in making the tracks.

“The analogue equipment like the drum machines and the sequencers are affected by their surroundings, by all the vibrations and the feelings in the room and by you standing next to them. Their timing is never completely exact, and these small variations make them more human”, Marcus says.

“The computer screen has these visual representations of the music, and the entire process takes place in your thoughts and in your head much more than in your heart and your body. With the analogue equipment your access to the psyche and the subconscious is a lot more direct. And that’s the beauty of it. To express what is inside of you and let other people feel that. That’s what it’s all about,” Marcus says.

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  • 1 month later...

I was really excited to see a new Son Kite album being released. However, I am sad to say that this is partially unlistenable. Why do these guys produce such piercing high-pitched noises that hurt the ears? Examples: Track 1 from about 1:50; Track 3 from about 3:20. Have Son Kite and the engineers already lost their hearing abilities in the trebel range due to loud parties? Otherwise there is some promising grooves here, but, yeah, I guess this is ruined for me...

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I was really excited to see a new Son Kite album being released. However, I am sad to say that this is partially unlistenable. Why do these guys produce such piercing high-pitched noises that hurt the ears? Examples: Track 1 from about 1:50; Track 3 from about 3:20. Have Son Kite and the engineers already lost their hearing abilities in the trebel range due to loud parties? Otherwise there is some promising grooves here, but, yeah, I guess this is ruined for me...

 

Although for reasons different than you, I'm also pretty disappointed with this - I love both Minilogue albums (Animals & Blomma) and don't mind that Son Kite also leaned more towards similar sound, but compared to these two albums "Prisma" is really bland and boring. There is really very little going on, it's just couple of loops - not very interesting at that - thrown together and inter-weaved over the length of each track, without much variation, ad-hoc memorable melodies / sounds or the jazzy influences present in Minilogue albums. It's just pretty boring in comparison and sounds like B-sides of previous albums :(

 

It doesn't help that the mastering is very quiet and the cover is horrible :)

 

EDIT: after reading it, need to clear this up - it is NOT a bad album, far from it. Just below my expectations considering Son Kite's previous albums and in particular their wonderful creations under the Minilogue moniker.

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