She Vanishes is Vicki Richards 5th recorded album under her name and Temple Street Music. The music is riveting, soothing, inspiring, healing, joyful, and is meant to inspire. In some places, the Tabla grooves are danceable and the music deeply moving. Transitions, Nature, & Love are the inspirations, and the results are sparkling. There’s a touch of American-flavored music on some tracks, and the velvet quality of Vicki’s violin sound moves from ethereal to earthy. The trio’s ensemble sensibilities illustrate fine musicianship honed over many years. “Seasoned artist” is a term that can be assigned to each remarkable player who is a leader, composer, and improviser in his/her own right.
The trio has played together since 2005, and is comprised of Vicki Richards on acoustic & electric violin, Mitch Kopp on guitars and Jeff Deen on Tabla & percussion. Mitch’s guitar drives the perpetual motion of the harmonic underpinning on more than half of the tracks. His harmonic two-handed tapping technique is reminiscent of innovative artists like Michael Hedges and Vicki Genfan.
Jeff’s Tabla is an integral percussion instrument reflecting his training with Pandit Sharda Sahai in the classical music of North India. Newly designed percussion instruments like the Hapi and Halo are also featured. The trio continues to explore the landscape of musical beauty and poignancy together, and embrace new technologies to achieve the best of both acoustic and electronic enrichments for their musical destinations.
She Vanishes features trios, duets, and solo tracks, interspersed throughout, that range from vibrant and energetic to that of a state of quiet with moving reveries. Throughout She Vanishes, you’ll hear musical elements of Americana (“Trailhead” -- listen for a touch of A. Copeland), ragas from India (“The Embrace, The Kiss”), otherworldly sounds on the flying saucer-shaped Hapi.
The solo violin track in “Riding the Thermals” features a live session of Vicki creating multiple live loops, where she dives into the bass register rhythmically and accompanies it with harmony lines above, and adds in a sprinkle of winged fancy in her bow arm. Vicki’s string arrangements on “She Vanishes” and “Ocean Sun” are remarkable in creating a gentle interweaving, reflecting her early history as an orchestral player.
She Vanishes is unique, energized, and mostly acoustic music. Some tracks have unique enhancements which alter preconceived notions about what a violin “should’ sound like. The vision or the telling of “Her Story” is Vicki’s, and reflects her years of music making in the mediums of Classical North Indian, Classical Music and Electric Violin.
With heralded musician and co-producer, Amitava Chatterjee, and engineer Peter Yianilos, they have made quite a few excellent records together over the past 20 years, as they were all part of a collaborative group of musicians in South Florida, including Robert Thomas Jr. (Weather Report/Zawinul Syndicate) back in the days of Criteria Studios.
1. Trailhead ( Berkshires) 2. The Embrace 3. She Vanishes 4. Glass Heart 5.The Embrace
6. Midnight Whisper 7. The Kiss 8. Searching The Night 9. Driving Til Dawn
10. It Was Love 11. Ocean Sun 12. Riding The Thermals (Everglades )
www.vickirichards.net
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