Black by Kevin Richard Martin

Kevin Richard Martin - 'Black'

'Black' is a musical eulogy to Amy Winehouse, a heartfelt memorial to a sorrowful demise. Its an album of predominantly beatless ambience possesed by the ghost of 'Back to black'. Fragmented moods and hypnotic drones melt together, as its circular beauty is set adrift, floating away into an endless void.. where the original only remains in spirit alone...

It doesnt make particular sense why i was drawn to this idea and compelled to immerse myself in the original song, and her life in general, but sometimes you just have to roll with your muse..Having barely registered her whilst she was alive, and not cared for Mark Ronson's poptastic productions, it was only when i heard of her tragic death, that it struck an unexpected chord, recalling the same surreal emotional impact, as when i had heard of Kurt Cobain's premature passing previously.... Both figures were unarguably gifted, but both left this planet largely without essential support, whilst they were at the peak of their powers and on top of the musical world..

Gone too soon, departed too young, a world weary voice, carried on a downward spiral, Amy Winehouse seemed trapped in her self destructive descent... It was only years later, whilst randomly watching Asif Kapadia's moving bio doc 'Amy', on a long distance flight that i realised the scale of her greatness and the tragedy of the circumstances that led to her untimely death...This album is simultaneously a treatise on lovelessness, tragedy and loss, echoing the absence of a support network when it matters most during such a freefall. And just as myself and others i know shed tears watching that 'Amy' documentary, this album is as much a reaction to the universal emotional themes conveyed within that touching documentary as to the tragic life of Amy herself.

I have been workin on the idea of this sonic album for over a year, and the slo-mo dream rotations remain as blurred and impressionistic as they are repetitive and haunting... An eerie cocktail of spectral jazz, shoegaze drone and dubbed out ambient music, it continues the solo path i have been developing as KRM.

I hope it strikes a chord.

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