Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Emilie Weibel: oMoo

8

Emilie Weibel: oMoo

Emilie Weibel: oMoo
Swiss vocalist and composer Emilie Weibel is a poet at heart and not only because she penned most of the words on her intriguing debut oMoo. A deep sense of lyricism permeates the entire performance of this cycle of songs that transforms the entire album into an intimate and introspective verse narrative.

Her unaccompanied exquisite voice hovers in expectant silence on the prayer like "Lemania." Electronic sound effects support her undulating emotive singing enhancing the serenity and the mystique of the tune with their steady beats and haunting echoes.

French symbolist Paul Verlaine's wistful "L'Heure Exquise" (put to music by Venezuelan composer Reynaldo Hahn) tiptoes in on Weibel's yearning whispers and her xylophone's crystalline mallets. Weibel interprets the aria with a crisp modernism that remains true to the melancholic romanticism of the original.

Weibel also has a strong dramatic sense as she constructs three-dimensional pieces with inventive and memorable atmospheres. Accompanying herself on various instruments and utilizing sound clips Weibel carefully directs the progression of these brief yet eerily transcendent tunes with agility and deftness.

Her wordless vocalese on "Tu Dis" blows like a fragrant breeze as her own overdubbed refrains buoy the lilting air. While the sunny disposition of the clever and playful "Hello Lėa" is laced with a delightfully dark undercurrent.

This type of contrasting motifs also appears on the title track with its chanting vamps. Despite her elegantly ethereal delivery and the intricately woven melody there is something vibrantly primal about the overlapping vocables.

The passionate "Paola" opens with a soft sonic drone over which Weibel's sparse yet ardent enunciations effortlessly glide. Her, organic and resonant voice melds with the electronics to a sublimely hypnotic effect.

Weibel' first record demonstrates that she is an adventurous and innovative musician. This, hopefully, is the first volume in a unique body of work that is to come from this immensely talented and sophisticated artist.

Track Listing

Lemania; Footprints; Paola; Tu Dis (To My Dad); L' Heure Exquise; River Song; Omoo; Hello Lea.

Personnel

Emilie Weiberl: vocals, music box, xylophone, percussion, keyboards, electronics.

Album information

Title: oMoo | Year Released: 2014 | Record Label: Inner Circle Music

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

Near

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.