| The
Review |
It’s taken another couple years but we are graced with
a new release from Sonus Umbra entitled Digging for Zeros.
The gap in recording is perhaps understandable when you consider
that main man, Luis Nasser also participates with at least
two other bands; he is one busy musician. One might think
he’d be stretching himself too thinly, and yet by the sound
of Digging for Zeros that doesn’t seem to be the case. If
the expression “third times a charm” means anything it certainly
can apply here. This is Sonus Umbra’s best work yet!***
For this third release Nasser (bass, keyboards, guitar,
spoken voices) has the returning talents of Lisa Francis (lead
vocals), Ricardo Gomez (acoustic & electric guitars), and
Jeff Laramee (drums) and has added Pablo Garcia (piano, keyboards,
samples vocals), and Andy Tillotson (acoustic and electric
guitars, vocals). As on previous recordings Sonus Umbra relies
on a larger pool of talent and continues to involve many special
guests, this time including John Grant, Tim McCluskey, Nathaniel
Underwood and Adam Zygmunt. ***
Musically the Sonus Umbra sound continues to develop
with a nice balance between electric and acoustic instruments.
A little acoustic guitar here is balanced with electric there…some
acoustic piano is balanced with synths there. It’s a good
mix. Songs like “Lost in the Invisible World” display this
arranging quite well. The song features a bright mix of power
chords, tempered with a delicate acoustic touch. And this
is the pattern for the whole recording. Songs like “Infestations”
can start out quite guitar-heavy and aggressive, but then
the track will be linked to a short ambient connecting piece.
Of course what this does is create a flow that moves the listener
seamlessly from start to finish. With 20 tracks you know there’s
some variety here, and in fact we go from a sequence that
is only :53 seconds to the longest being just a tick over
7-minutes. In addition the mix of male and female vocals gives
this work a sense of flow. With each of the tracks connected
this is a very swiftly moving 61 minutes of music. ***
Compositionally the music created by Sonus Umbra on Digging
for Zeros will remind you a lot of Pink Floyd and Roger Water’s
work. It has that same overall feel, especially with the inclusion
of various connecting sound effects and voices. To my ears,
Digging for Zeros also has a wider range of tempo than previous
Sonus Umbra releases, mixing many mid-tempo tracks with a
few that are somewhat more aggressive or sprightly. The musicianship
is first rate and really shows these people growing in their
craft. This is a tremendous third release, displaying even
more musical variety than previous efforts, yet tightly constructed
and arranged all the while being very musically cohesive.
This is great stuff.***
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