eMotive
Non Profit Music
review by Jerry Rabushka
eMotive is a new age & contemporary instrumental CD featuring four Spanish musicians; the Non Profit Music label walks its talk by donating proceeds to Doctors Without Borders and using its music to bring attention to humanitarian causes. This CD is actually a compilation from four solo CDs by composers Jorge Grundman (the founder of NPM), David Caballero, Joaquin Taboada, and Eduardo Laguillo.
Some of the cooler stuff on here: the first cut “Raghupati Raghava” sounds somewhat Indian, has a good groove, nice vocals, some changing moods. Track two, “The Girl with the Solen Smile (Nanjing, 1937)”, by Grundman, has a really moving piano part plus a lot of nice Asian instrumentals. Those are, to my ears & psyche, the two best on here.
Overall, Grundman’s work carries the day, his grooves and beats are remarkable for what they DON’T do as much as for what they do, and they take your attention with their simplicity. He knows how to change moods and sounds without jarring you out of your chair.
It’s a relatively solid CD, i.e. you can put it on and it’s good to listen to. A few of the tracks, mostly in the middle of the album, suffer from being “typical”…. They aren’t bad but they don’t really take you somewhere you haven’t been before, and they aren’t “deep and moving” or anything like that. There’s a lot of lush piano on this CD, very well recorded, very well supported.
Another nice one, Forgotten Moss, by Taboada (pictured at piano), is a dreamy mix of glowing keybaords and wordless women (aaaaaa aaaaa, etc.), short phrases on the keyboard with enough rest that gives you pause for thought.
It’s all pretty dreamy and makes wonderful use of reverb. If you’re looking for music to relax to, yet with the occasional stroke of genius, this CD is a good bet.
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