Being the 10th full-length studio album of Dakota Suite ‘The Hearts of Empty’ is a milestone in the history of the band that started to release their works back in 1998. And honestly, it even would be a milestone without being the 10th album as it is a truly outstanding collection of discreet, slow and somewhat jazzy pieces. Accompanied by the wonderful Grammy award winning (New Age) cellist David Darling, whose ‘Cello Blue’ album especially is one of these works that I’m listening to constantly for ages now without losing interest in most of the compositions. Like on ‘The North Green Down’ as well, a collaborative work between Dakota Suite and Emanuele Errante with the help of David Darling who adds his ‘typical sound’ to some of the pieces of that album too, the combination of Dakota Suite and David Darling creates a wonderful intimate atmosphere that brings a certain calmness to the listener. I really like it just to sit there and watch the ‘The Hearts of Empty’ vinyl spinning whilst listening to the trio pieces.
The Karaoke Kalk label coming from Cologne (but now based in Berlin) about the release: “Although Dakota Suite may be inspired by jazz music and draw on the influence of this colossal art form, they have taken it in an entirely different direction altogether with The Hearts of Empty. As far as Dakota Suite have a really original take on jazz it’s fair to say they exceeded the goal described in Chris’ statement of making modern jazz record as envisaged through Dakota Suite glasses This is exactly what they have achieved. The Hearts of Empty goes way beyond the traditional concept of a jazz trio foraying into fields such as new music, experimental and neo-classical and well as into completely uncharted territory altogether. Although these compositions were conceived as an accompanying double CD to go along with the recordings with Grammy award winning cellist David Darling that appeared as The End of Trying, they work so well as an album in their own right. Every one of the pieces on The Hearts of Empty is of the utmost highest order.”
In contrast to most of the other reviews I won’t talk about single pieces from this beautiful record today. But I definitely have to write about the album cover design that has been created with photography taken by one half of Dakota Suite – David Buxton, the guy who also wrote, arranged and performed all the pieces of that album: this black and white artwork totally fits to the music as it is somewhat inconspicuous at first glance but unfolds profundity the more one is concentrating on the album. Upright piano, bass, drums, cello and some slight electronics every now and then create a highly interesting mixture of an ‘Easy Jazz’ and ‘New Age’ sound (which is not meant to categorize the music into one of these or even both genres, the music stands for itself). The arrangements are absolutely well-considered and performed nicely. Regarding the variety of genres that can be found on the different Dakota Suite releases and the impressive quality they handle with each of it, these musicians still seem to be underrated definitely! However, thanks for this little treasure – ‘The Hearts of Empty’ is a really beautiful album.
[ 4,6 / 5 ]
