Author: Antonio Díaz

Categories
Cinema DVD

21

{mosimage}Poker is just like real life. You can bet hard and win… or lose everything. Ben Campbell will see both sides in Las Vegas casinos.

I must admit I have no idea of playing poker, but I love movies about poker. Not long time ago we had the chance to see Eric Bana´s great performance in Lucky You, and now we assist to another little masterpiece with this 21. A group of young and hyper-talented students will try to put the biggest Vegas casinos at stake led by the methodical Kevin Spacey, and Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) will have to carry a double life: a grey and shy student during the scholar week and a successful gambler at weekends.

Sturgess is credible in his performance, mastering a difficult multisided role, while the beauty of Kate Bosworth is a balsam all over the film. They are perfectly supported by two huge Hollywood names such as Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Spacey in brilliant secondary roles.

A good cocktail and an intelligent script make the movie pretty enjoyable from the beginning to the end. There is also space for a couple of small twists that enrich the plot but do not destroy it. Nice title to watch!

Rating 4/5.

Categories
Albums Music

Underwater Sleeping Society – The Dead Vegas

{mosimage}The band from Helsinki is aspiring to be the “indie pop band” of Finland. Will they achieve it? 

Indie pop seems to be living a golden age in Finland parallel to the heavy metal craziness. Underwater Sleeping Society, the band led by Okko Nieminen comes into scene with a fresh new CD full of good ideas. Starting from the artwork of the cover and the CD disc itself, that reminds in the design of an old vinyl disc, and continuing with their catchy bittersweet tunes, mixing happiness and sadness like in Saw You at my Funeral, the danceable Hurry or Worry or the introspective and semi-psychedelic Body Blues. A good effort by the Finnish boys that count with the support of one of the strongest record companies in Finland: Backstage Alliance.

USS will be touring quite extensively during the next couple of months in Finland, so you can have an easy chance to see their performance live. For the moment, they leave a good taste with this The Dead Vegas that surely will find a good bunch of fans easily.  

Rating 4/5.

Categories
Albums Music

Los Bastardos Finlandeses – Return of El Diablo

{mosimage}Those bastards are back! Yes amigos, the Finnish rockers with Spanish soul are back with a fucking good new CD!

I must confess I have always felt a special weakness for Los Bastardos Finlandeses, starting from the fact that they write their band´s name in Spanish and continuing with the fact that they perform a direct and blowing rock that sounds even better on live. Here you have their new piece of music, a very complete album with the familiar southern rock taste and lyrics that flirt with Spanish language in almost every song. Los Bastardos do not transmit the typical cold and melancholic feeling of most Finnish bands at all. Their music has a great palette of colors, it sounds warm and friendly, like a good tequila shot. Listen to the raged guitar riffs of Red Eyed Rock ´n´Roller, Houseful of Hooligans or Return of El Diablo and enjoy the broken voice of El Taff Bastardo.

Another strong point of the album is its great at work, that feels a bit dangerous but viciously close and friendly, just as the band itself.The Finnish Bastards have been able to create a rock album that certainly rocks, something not so easy to achieve nowadays. Larga vida a los Bastardos!

Rating 5/5.

 

Related articles:

Interview with Olli "Don Osmo"

http://www.freemagazine.fi/content/view/829/

Categories
Albums Music

Dark Filth Fraternity – Breathe Again

{mosimage}With a very polished American rock sound, Finnish DFF are back with a new studio album that exhales good quality. 

DFF is composed by Panu Wilman on the vocals and guitars, Heikki Iso-Sipilä on the guitars and backing vocals, Henri Rasänen on the bass and Riku Wilman on the drums. I already had a good feeling towards this band when I listened some months ago to their single The Peacemaker, a feeling confirmed by this new album Breathe Again.

Dark Filfth Fraternity sounds powerful, with raw guitar riffs very present all over the album from the first track The Peacemaker, and with great vocal skills by Panu Wilman. It reminds me of some good American bands with a taste of “dessert rock”, like Queens of the Stone Age mixed with some funky flavor like Red Hot Chilly Peppers ´old material. 

For the moment DFF is trying to make a name for touring around Finland, but I really hope that the guys can have opportunities abroad to expand their horizons, because they deserve it with such a good album. Shit, I even love the album art cover, simple but classy! 

Rating 4/5.

Categories
Albums Music

Willie Basse – The Money Grind

{mosimage}After 8 long years since the release of his last studio album, this legendary American musician is back with some good old-school rock. 

Willie Basse is certainly a busy musician on and off stage. Apart from having played with the legendary band Black Sheep (that counted with infamous members like Slash or Paul Gilbert) he also enjoys the technical part of working as sound engineer. Now, Willie is back again on the road and most possibly touring also around Europe in the next few months. What you have here with this Money Grind is a collection of classic rock tunes. Topics like pretty girls, sex, danger life… 

Everything looks back to the good feelings from early 80s in tracks like (Love so) Far Away or Danger Zone: double drums, sharp riff guitars, good vocal skills and nice lyrics, this album is all you can wish about if you are a fan of bands like Aerosmith, Van Halen or Deep Purple. But at the same time, this is also the weak point of the album, Willie does not offer anything new, and we have to take into account that we are already in 2008. Certainly is a great album if you are a lover of that kind of music (as it is my case), but there is still a bunch of great material in the same genre published in all these last decades. It is difficult to make a strong comeback after so many years, and although Willie will continue being considered as a cult name for good old-school rock lovers, it does not seem plausible that a greater success is now going to knock at his door, when was denied in the past.

In any case, not everything is about selling millions of albums, but just to be able to transmit a great feeling with agood doses of rock, something that our old friend Willie achieves once more. 

Rating 3/5.

Categories
Cinema DVD

Ocean Waves (Aaltojen Kuohu)

{mosimage} Directed by one of the most interesting Japanese anime directors, Tomomi Mochizuki, here comes a tender love story between two Japanese teenagers. 

Aaltojen Kuohu was part of the films featured during the past Rakkautta & Anarkiaa festival in Helsinki. If you missed it (or otherwise you specially liked it) in the big screen, now you have an excellent option to review it again in DVD. The film narrates a simple but wonderful story that mostly happens at high school, with two friends, Matsuno and Taku falling in love with a new student coming from Tokyo: Rikako. The female role is quite complex and identifies very well with the hard times of being teenager and new in an unknown city, with a family broken by a divorce. Rikako is not the typical sweet girl, but that makes her even more fascinating, a mix of innocent girl and little devil, the typical figure that just make men lose their head. 

There are not big special effects or high doses of adrenaline exhibited here, like it is usual in many other Japanese animation films. The simplicity of the story is the weakest and the greatest point achieved by Mochizuki at the same time. It brings closer to us the life of Japanese students, their expectations, their efforts to achieve good marks to go to a good University, the rituals of their everyday life, etc.

Maybe for some other viewers the plot can turn to be a bit too simple, but in any case the duration of the movie is just around 1 hour 10 minutes, so there is not much time to feel bored. Not one of my Japanese movies, but not a bad effort though. As a negative last note, I must accuse the Finnish distributors of the same repeated mistake: there are no English subtitles available, so be ready to practice your Finnish skills if you do not understand Japanese fluently… 

Rating 3/5.

 

Categories
Cinema DVD

Bill

{mosimage}Aaron Eckhart is a loser not happy with his current life. Addicted to candies, cheated by his wife… he will find a new meaning to his life with the intervention of a young kid. 

After watching Bill, I still have not decided if I liked the movie or not. There are as many points in favor as against this movie. Aaron Eckhart´s role is certainly good, sometimes even brilliant. He is credible as a man with no personal achievements always running with the flow that the family of his wife imposes him. There are some enjoyable moments and lines in the film, and certainly you do not get bored watching it.  But after half of the movie passed, I thought that the final 20 minutes could have been better developed. The script has some flaws, and maybe the character is not everything you would expect from him.

From my point of view it was a mistake not to develop more the relation between the kid and Jessica Alba, that would have add a nice touch of transgression in the movie. I suppose the American moral does not allow to feature openly a relation between an underage guy and a young beautiful girl in her twenties, but certainly it is some more doses of transgression what is missed in the movie; the reaction of Eckhart when being cheated is not very plausible, neither the happenings after the mini “orgy” in the tent. And Alba’s appearance is pretty wasted here, not adding much to the flow of the action. 

It is a pity that the script was spoiled to give a more politically correct ending to the movie, because certainly this Bill could have turned out to be a little masterpiece. Unfortunately, it finishes as just a good comedy that could have been better. 

Rating 3/5.

Categories
Albums Music

Jann Wilde and the Neon Comets – Neon City Rockers

{mosimage}With such a name for the album I was imaging that Jann Wilde and his band would come from NY. No, these punk rockers are directly from Tampere rock city! 

Jann Wilder is a musician born in Riihimäki who has been around for a few years in the punk-rock scene with his previous band Rose Avenue. I must admit I had not much reference about what to expect before listening to this Neon City Rockers, but I got instantly hooked by the quality of its sound. I must admit that this is probably one of the biggest and nicest surprises about Finnish bands singing in English of 2008 for me. The band has released the album with Hype Records, the same company that works for example with others like Negative, and you can notice that the production has been meticulously taken care of. The album itself is a great collection of soft punk-rock songs; I would highlight some like Baby Said Yeah, Screams at the Ballet or Neon City Rockers. The style is perfect for reaching at a wide audience, from the young female teenagers to the older rockers.

 

I wish the best of luck to Jann Wilde and the Neon Comets, and hopefully they will be able to make a name for themselves step by step with his good punk-glam-rock music. If you are hungry to discover new promising Finnish bands singing in English, this album is for you. 

Rating 5/5.

Categories
Albums Music

The Dandy Warhols – …Earth to the Dandy Warhols…

{mosimage}13 tracks compose the new sixth studio album by a band that seems to be more and more on shape with every new released work. 

The band from Portland is back, after having built a solid career with their first albums in the 90s. What you have here is a solid album, almost flawless, that shows the musical evolution of a band that has got to play its cards brilliantly. The World the People Together is a blowing starting track for the record, the sound is catchy and vigorous, and it really makes you move your feet even without noticing. Although this is a rock album, The Dandy Warhols play with different approaches that make the songs sound funky and even electronic, a real effective remedy against boredom, so the record sounds dynamic all along every track. Taylor-Taylor´s vocal skills master the album offering different registers that can make his voice evolve you, or sound sexily dangerous like in Mission Control; and added to this, for placing the cherry on top of the cake, the album counts with the collaboration of Mr. Mark Knopfler and guitarist Mike Campbell in the delicious Love Song. 

A pretty recommendable album and a great step for the American guys. 

Rating 4/5.  

Categories
Interviews Music

Iron daughter

Not all the pretty girls sing pop in MTV. Lauren Harris, the daughter of Iron Maiden legendary bass player Steve Harris, paid a visit to Finland this summer to open the gigs for her father’s band, introducing her new album Calm Before the Storm to the Finnish audience. Before her second gig in Tampere, we had some minutes to chat with this English beauty in the backstage about the amazing experience of touring the world together with Maiden and what people can expect from her debut album.

Organization is a bit chaotic outside Tampere Ratina stadium, but we finally manage to enter the backstage area and chat with Laurent a few hours before her gig. After the interview is over, there is time to launch an attack on the free backstage beers while waiting to see if we can take a glance of Bruce Dickinson and his fellows passing by. No good luck, but at least to be able to interview and take some pictures with one of the hottest female rock singers nowadays pays off. And after the interview, the delirium with a good evening of heavy metal!

Thanks for attending us Lauren! You have released recently your new album but you have been in music business for a while. Can you explain us a bit more about your beginnings?

Yeah, I used to sing in pubs and stuff like that. Famous producer Russ Ballard happened to be in a pub during one of my shows and after he asked me if I would be interested in recording a demo for him. So of course I said yes. Later I talked to my dad about it and he asked “what was his name” and I said Russ Ballard and of course he knew him, I did not have a clue.

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Coming from a family with musicians, were you listening to heavy metal and hard rock since you were a child, or which were your influences?

I was listening to more classic rock, bands like Gun, Golden Earring, and then I started listening to harder stuff like ACDC, Guns and Roses and so on.

So now with your new album, what can people expect from this Calm before the Storm?

I would kind of describe it as classic rock. Some songs talk about relationships, some about feeling good and stuff like that. I think there is quite a lot of different stuff there.

The title of the album is also kind of “classic” in English rock history, Saxon had a song with that name and also in the last album of Judas Priest there is one track titled Calm before the Storm.

Oh really? I did not even know that!

You also have a cover of UFO, Natural Thing, as extra track in your album. Who had the idea to include it?

It was my dad’s decision actually. He is a big fan of UFO. It is a band that I kind of started to listen to because of him, so he advised me that I could try that song, so we did.

You were yesterday singing at your first gig in Finland at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. How was it?

It was really good actually, really good. Very good response from the Finnish audience so I was really glad! Finland is a metal loving country.

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I suppose that maybe in this World tour you are visiting places you have never been before. Any special venue you remember?

Well, playing in the Madison Square Garden, being such a historic place where so many good bands played before, in front of thousands of people, was very special. Also when we were in South America we did a lot of outdoors shows with Maiden, with thousands of people there, so the atmosphere was incredible. South American fans are very passionate!

You have been working hard in your career as a singer for 3-4 years already but now this is your biggest world tour with Maiden. What do you think of the comments that people can make about that you are into this because you are “the daughter of” Steve Harris, etc and they do not pay attention to all what you did before?

Well, I try not to pay attention really. I have toured with Within Temptation; I have toured with The Answer, with Thunder before. With Maiden I have been given the opportunity because of my dad, I am not going to deny that to the people, it is very obvious. For the people who could criticize that I would say that well, if they would have a daughter in the same situation, they would do exactly the same thing. I have been touring now for 18 months, so I suppose that if things would have gone bad, then we had stop the tour ages ago.

I have curiosity, being touring with your father, how is the relation? Do you go to have beers together after the shows, or do you try to keep a bit independent from him?

Well, we do not have time to spend so much time together actually. I travel with my band and he travels with his band, flying everywhere and stuff like that. Well, sometimes we are in pubs together which is cool, I do not feel embarrassed like “oh god my father is here!” nothing like that, hehehe It is really cool with him.

After the tour with Maiden, what plans do you have, because you have not stopped much for 2-3 years? No time for holidays?

No, not right now. After the tour with Maiden we will have some weeks off in September and then we are going to continue on tour, headlining some smaller gigs.

Anything you want to add for our readers?

Thanks a lot to the Finnish audience for come to watch and support me. I hope it won’t be the last time here!

Photos by Eduardo Alonso.

Categories
Albums Music

Sonic Syndicate – Love and Other Disasters

{mosimage}From Sweden comes Sonic Syndicate, a band that maybe rings a bell for many of you having opened the American tour for Nightwish in the past. 

Sonic Syndicate belong to the same label than Nighwish and that certainly opened them a couple of doors to tour together. Apart from that, they also counted with the help in the mixing of this new album of Roberto Laghi, a real value when facing the composition of a new studio album. Roberto has also recently worked with their compatriots In Flames, and actually both bands are hitting the road together in this 2008. What you have here is a good collection of guttural voices, killing guitar riffs and powerful drums. Love and Other Disasters sounds hammering and consistent, with the Sjunnesson brothers taking good control of the band. Fans of bands like Crematory will really enjoy them, but for some other most classic metal fans, maybe it can ending up being a bit too brutal. 

Rating 3/5.

Categories
Albums Music

Black Stone Cherry – Folklore and Superstition

{mosimage}The foursome from Kentucky strikes back with their second studio album. 

As I said in previous reviews, I am not a person very fond of mixing religious views and rock. A Black Stone Cherry´s component repeatedly thanks God for their album, but I suppose there must be some enlightenment there, when they were able to create such a little masterpiece. It is difficult to catalogue the style of the guys from Kentucky, but it is at the same time easy to see many influences in their music: Black Crowes, AC/DC, Nickebalck… 

From the first track (and one of the best in the albums) Blind Man, you can notice that this album is not the one meticulously planned in the studio. The guitar riffs sound raw and natural, and I personally like that feeling of little improvisation around the 12 songs that compose this Folklore and Superstition. With no song equal to the previous one, but at the same time with a common spirit of good rock with roots, Black Stone Cherry have been able to gladly shock me with this album; one of the nicest surprises of 2008 so far. 

Rating 5/5.

Categories
Interviews Music

These dolls are on fire!!!

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They are young, pretty, and spicy… and they also know how to rock! In FREE! Magazine we have always paid special attention to the hottest female rock bands, like in our previous interviews with The Donnas or Stalingrad Cowgirls. Now, straight from Hell-sinki, Kaisa, the guitarist of Barbe-Q-Barbies, kindly talks about her band and their last awesome experiences, like opening for legendary W.A.S.P. this summer.

Hello Kaisa. thanks for your answers. Can you explain a bit how did you get to know each other and started with the band?

I first got to know our drummer Niina when we worked at the same video rental store in 2000. Niina and I played in another band before Barbe-Q-Barbies but somehow that didn’t catch fire…  Niina, Ekkis and our former bassist Katriina had already formed the Barbies when I joined in 2002 (or was it 2003?).

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The name of the band is quite original, who has the idea?

The idea came from Niina, it originates from the Soundgarden-video Black Hole Sun, where a little girl barbeques a Barbie-doll.

Was it planned from the beginning that you wanted to form a “girls `band”? Why not male members in the formation?

I think so, one of the main points besides playing fierce rock’n’roll is the fact that we all are women.

How is Helsinki as a place for living and playing there? Are you all originally from Helsinki, or were your born somewhere else?

Helsinki is a good place for bands, there are quite many places for gigs here and it’s easy to find people with the same enthusiasm for rock as we have. I’m originally from Oulu (in northern Finland) though.

Is there any difference in Finland to play rock being women instead of men? I mean, do you consider that it is easier, the same or more difficult to reach the audience, promoters and book gigs? 

I guess it still is – and will be for a long time- an eccentric thing for women to play rock. However, the point isn’t that we try to do things like our male counterparts do, but our aim is to add some special flavor to the soup.  Of course it sometimes may be easier to get attention as a female band, just because there aren’t those many… But the fact remains, if people don’t like your stuff, they soon lose interest and stop coming to the gigs and buying your records, no matter what sex you are.

How would you define your music style for new people who want to get to know you? Do you have any/several bands that have influenced you directly?

Something old, something new…” In my opinion our music has that raunchy vibe of the r’n’r bands of the 70’s but there also is something from this millennium. Think of The Runaways, Blondie, AC/DC and Foo Fighters getting together. Hmm, how many members would that be…?

What do you think of other female rock bands in Finland, like Stalingrad Cowgirls?{mosimage}

I think they have a good thing going on. Still, in spite of the same sex, I think we have quite different style. There definitely is, and should be, room for many female bands in Finland and outside Finland too.

You were opening the concert for legendary WASP at the beginning of August. How was the experience? Did you have chance to meet them and talk to them?

It was a great experience, opening for them and playing in a big stage like Teatria in Oulu. Somehow you suddenly feel like 3 meters tall when rocking in a huge stage like that. We actually had a chance to meet with the guys after their gig, they all seemed very nice and easy-going fellas. We didn’t meet Blackie though which was a pity!

Do you dedicate completely to music, or do you have other activities (jobs, hobbies)?

It’s a shame that we can’t pay your rent just by playing rock… yet. But who knows, maybe someday… At the moment I also work full time at the university, other than that, I like to go to gigs and movies. I like traveling too, if only I had the time and money to do that more often… 

Do men find it “sexy” when you comment that you play in a rock band?

Well, the better if it tickles your pickle… 

What are your future plans during this year?

Writing songs, doing gigs, searching for the right record label and doing a little trip in November.

Categories
Cinema Features

Gimme love, freedom and good movies against the coldness!

{mosimage}One more year, the Helsinki International Film Festival Rakkautta ja Anarkiaa (Love and Anarchy) it is a compulsory destination for lovers of good cinema. The offer this year is astonishingly good and wide, with more than 130 festival films available in the following venues: Bio Rex, Maxim, Kinopalatsi, Andorra, Dubrovnik and Kino Engel. 

 

Basically every single cinema lover will find something interesting to watch during the 10 days that the festival take place (from 18 to 28 of September). Japanese animation, the new cinema from Spain, the last tendencies of the neighboring Estonia, the most acid documentaries, other projects where cinema and music melt… everything has space here in Helsinki. The organization of HIFF is full of young and dynamic people who truly love cinema, and that gets extrapolated in an awesome offer.

 

 

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Added to this, the audience will have chance also to enjoy the visit of some very special guests like the Mexican director Carlos Reygadas or the Estonian directors Ilmar Raag, Veiko Ounpuu and René Vilbre (who is on the hot spot in his native country nowadays with the releasing of Minä Olin Siin, his latest project), as well as veteran Spanish actress Silvia Munt or the irreverent Chris Waitt, creator of the show Fur TV that you can watch in Finnish MTV.  

 

FREE! Magazine´s 5 picks for the 21st Helsinki International Film Festival:  

 

 

{mosimage}1) A Complete History of My Sexual Failures

Well, I think that the following sentence perfectly resumes the philosophy of a person who dares to dissect all his past failed relations in front of the camera. What you can expect from Chris Waitt and his exhilarating new movie is just to have a great time: 

”I made some sexy moves on Keira Knightley on the dance floor at a film awards party last year. I lasted two minutes before I was escorted away by her bodyguards.”
– DIRECTOR CHRIS WAITT, EMPIRE 

http://www.hiff.fi/lang-en/search-results/event/2024    

 

 

{mosimage}2) Tokyo Sonata  

Japanese director Kurosawa (no, not related to Akira Kurosawa) features a delicious bitter sweet story of a middle class family in Tokyo, where every member disguises in the everyday normality their own problems, dreams and passions. A great dissection of the contemporary Japanese society, and a wonderful final Sonata played in the piano by the child Kenji in the end that surely will make you feel goose pimples. 

http://www.hiff.fi/lang-en/search-results/event/2130—tokyo-sonata 

 

 

{mosimage}3) Chaotic Ana. 

Julio Medem is undoubtedly one of the best Spanish directors in the last decade. The creator of masterpieces like Land (Tierra), Lucia and the Sex (Lucia y el Sexo) or the closely related to Finland The lovers from the Arctic Circle (Los Amantes del Círculo Polar) is back with a new little masterpiece where features the exploratory journey of the young and beautiful Ana. 

http://www.hiff.fi/lang-en/search-results/event/2044—chaotic-ana 

 

{mosimage}4) It s a Free World. 

Ken Loach continues being socially involved with a new film that digs deep in the problems of the illegal workers in England and the hard conditions that they suffer. We follow the steps of Angie, a beautiful British recruiter who will fall in the dark side of morals and ethics when starts her own recruiting company. Entertaining and at the same time compromised. 100% Loach. 

http://www.hiff.fi/lang-en/search-results/event/2072—its-a-free-world 

 

{mosimage}5) Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.  

Hunter S. Thompson is certainly a name to remember in our recent history. The father of Gonzo journalist opened a path of excesses that not many could follow (but many were and still are dreaming with it). A path of drugs abuse, taking experiences to the limit, including to ride 1 year together with Hell Angels in order to write a book (if you still have not read his books Hell Angels, run to the bookstore for it!). Director Alex Gibney gives you a detailed view of the talented and neurotic journalist here. If after this you feel hungry of more about Hunter S. Thompson, you can always take a look at the superb acting work of Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, where Mr. Thompson makes a cameo. 

http://www.hiff.fi/lang-en/search-results/event/2064—gonzo-the-life-and-work-of-dr-hunter-s-thompson         

Categories
Albums Music

Anathema – Hindsights

{mosimage}Anathema offers in their new album an excellent collection of acoustic cover-compilation.

 

Vincent and Danny Cavanagh offer some old songs from Anathema, except the previously unreleased Unchained, this time played with an acoustic guitar. So basically what is offered here is nothing really new in their discography, but a new approach to their work. And the result is pretty fascinating. Great performances in every one of them, as an example take Leave No Trace, Angelica or A Natural Disaster. Background vocals are perfectly seized, and the inclusion of cello puts an emotive tone to the compositions.

Basically a must have for old and new fans of Anathema, although maybe some people who liked the old and more hardcore material from the British can feel disappointed here. In any case, this work sounds sophisticated and it really works as an acoustic project. A beautiful album.  

 

Rating 4/5.