If you wanted any further proof that music is a constant force in the world, one that moves and evolves through the ages, changing according to the wishes and whims of the creative hand but never being fully lost, you find it in Satoshi and their latest single.
‘Gelino (Sacred Flow)’ is the sound of an ancient force in a modern age, a reworking of a song from the musical traditions of Turkey and Georgia, a haunting piece usually rendered on the cello’s brooding strings in a folk/world music sound. But music is there for interpretation and reimagination, to be invigorated and imbued with the spirit of the age, reminding us that such modern ideas as genre and fashion are pointless in the face of such a timeless presence, that the spirit of the song endures, just waiting for the next musician to explore its music and meaning.
Satoshi brings the song into the present without ever losing the magical qualities at its primal heart; its drifting sonics are now provided by digital dexterity, its long, lingering notes now wandering through a more electronic, post-rock space but no less beautiful. And vocally, too, even with the slight digital catch echoing at the edge of the voice, it is a serene and sensual sound, a voice-as-instrument texture, as much a taste of a very different musical world to come as an echo of the past.
What this sumptuous reworking reminds us is that music is like matter; it can’t be eradicated, it just takes on new sonic forms, and here we find the spirit of an ancient energy surging through the ones and zeros of the binary world, as the past and the present, the organic and the electronic, the human and the hum of the modern musical machines dance in perfect and heavenly harmony.
It is a common fallacy that there is only so much you can do with music, and that creativity is limited by the finite number of chords and notes. That is the wrong metric for judging musical creativity. Measure it by the limits of the imagination of those making it, and you quickly realize that the potential for music is endless.
Website
Facebook
Bandcamp
YouTube
Instagram
