Zen Baboon – Suber

English / Polish version

Zen Baboon - Suber
    ELECTRIK DREAM RECORDS
    Zen Baboon
    Suber
    2013

      1. Beluga
      2. Pé Na Praia
      3. Optimist Bees
      4. Chocolate Sushi
      5. Cymru
      6. Reach Audio
      7. Qui Otto
      8. Cabeça Alta (Remix)
      9. Cloud Garden

______________________________

Some time ago I got a shipment from Electrik Dream Records, for which (I admit) I have been waiting for quite some time. I knew that the aforementioned label is promoting its youngest child and that is why I have waited impatiently for the moment, when the disc will reach my hands.

Before I will dwell on the album, I just mention that the project named Zen Baboon is powered by two Portuguese: Daniel Rosado and Henrique Palhavã, who (like most artists in this branch) have already started their adventure with music many years ago. Of course, their musical taste has evolved and they have learned some new sorts of electronic music, and the consequence of that fact is the album SUBER, which is reviewed by me. Daniel was trained as a sound engineer and now he works in a studio in Lisbon, developing documents for National Geographic. Henrique, a professional zoologist lives and works on his farm. In 2003, two men confronting their musical taste, have created the project Zen Baboon. The shy and innocent beginnings have resulted in the appearance of their tracks in such compilations as: AMBIENT PLANET VOL. 2 and COSMIK CHILL YELLOW, released by Electrik Dream Records, as well as presenting their music to a wider audience at numerous festivals, such as e. g. Boom in Portugal.

SUBER safely can be classified as the album oscillating around ambient with some elements of IDM, although sticking it a clear label certainly does not make sense, because of the considerable musical diversity of the tracks. PE NA PRAIA, CHOCOLATE SUSHI and CLOUD GARDEN are tracks, in which a guitar virtuoso, Samuel Lupi has been involved, and admit that he did it splendidly. In the track OPTIMIST BEES, captivates me and goes up to my brain an incredibly piercing and engaging message: 'All children are born artists’…, or the text that comes from another track, CYMRU (translated from Welsh as Wales): 'We are one and come from a pluralistic cultural world so we can all contribute to make this world a better place to be!!!’. QUI OTTO is probably one of my favourites, but it is really hard for me to pick up here creme de la creme, because all the tracks are based on equally high level. On the other hand, I find it hard to disagree with the sentence, which the artists themselves write about this track: 'Here you can feel as well how much the Zen Baboon are link to the beauty of nature and how much they are connected to mother Gaia.’

The album is a tribute and homage to nature, which undoubtedly has become an inspiration and muse for the project Zen Baboon, what can be heard in almost every track placed in the album SUBER. A master game of emotions, from sentimental, melancholic moments up to the rush of euphoria and elation state. It is really great to listen to it, because the whole is forming one long, compact story, mixed in this kind of way that it is just really hard to find the interspaces between tracks. Personally, I let myself be carried away for a few times and probably more than once I will do it again, but once I warn – this music requires that the listener devotes 100% of his attention, because only then it really works.
______________________________

8 / 10
Marion