Aral
Peter Cranny | Ireland | 10/04/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The form and sound of this latest release from Catherine Lara is heavily influenced by the fact that Eric Mouquet of the group Deep Forest co-wrote most of the tracks and the musicians involved in it's making are largely those responsible for the Deep Forest Live CD "Made in Japan". By any standards Aral is a beautiful album. Largely instrumental, it is a layered mix of acoustic instruments woven into some familiar Deep Forest keyboard sounds all fronted by the crystal clear violin playing of Catherine Lara. Where there are vocals, they compliment the melody wonderfully. The CD's name "Aral", apart from being "Lara" backwards is also the name of a sea in Kazakhstan that is probably the world's worst ecological disaster area. As you would expect then, there is an eastern/arabic feel to some of the tracks, although there are also classical influences and even an Irish touch where one of the pieces is opened with some very fine uileann piping. With all these fantastic sounds it's very hard to pin down just where "Aral" belongs other than at the top of your "must buy" list."