The Natacha Atlas & Marc Eagleton Project
Country of origin:
Morocco, England, Greece
Type of music generally:
Ambient, ethereal
Status:
Only release, Foretold in the Language of Dreams (2002)
See also:
Natacha Atlas's siteWikipedia's entry on Natacha Atlas
Comparisons:
Natacha Atlas gone new-agey ambient
Covers/own material:
Own
General comments:
A one-time collaboration between Natacha Atlas and Marc Eagleton (about whom there's next to no information available on the internet.)
Recommended first album:
Foretold in the Language of Dreams
Recordings:
Foretold in the Language of Dreams (2002)
Foretold in the Language of Dreams
Release info:
2002—Mantra Recordings—MNTCD 1029
Availability:
England
Ecto priority:
Recommended
Group members:
Natacha Atlas—vocals, bells, strange other (1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11)
Marc Eagleton—vocals and general malarkey
Guest artists:
Abdullah Chahady—qanun, vocals (2, 8, 11, 10)
Andrew Cronshaw—zither (2, 3, 11)
Adam Blake—guitar (5)
Larry Whelan—clarinet (1)
Kad—keyboards, computer malarkey (1, 5)
Shima Muckerjee—sitar (5)
Philip Bagenal—cello, vocals, bells (2, 10, 3)
Luca Proietti—strings, keyboards, piano arrangement, computer malarkey (1, 10, 6, 9)
Avaton (group)—all music on "Simun" and "Jeranos" and special guest on violin "Yiorgos Maglaras"
Constantino Albini—vocals (10)
Salim Benouni—violin (1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11)
Hamid Mantu—vocals, computer malarkey, strange other (4, 10)
Produced by:
Natacha Atlas and Marc Eagleton
Comments:
It's not a "regular" Natacha Atlas album; it's credited to "Natacha Atlas/Marc Eagleton Project," and she has described it in an online interview as "New Age." Anyone who has heard her albums will remember passages (sometimes at the beginning, sometimes partway through a song) where the dance beats are in abeyance and she improvises complicated vocal cadenzas over a drone. Foretold... consists largely of passages like that.
Sounds good to me. (dgk@panix.com)i picked the album up in Berlin several months ago, and i have to say that i wasn't exactly blown away. there's nothing bad about it—it's just a bit on the "lite" side, compared to her more Jah-Wobble-y and Underground-ish work. (bossert@suddensound.com)
This is an album that I want to like more than I actually do. There are really interesting vocal and instrumental textures, and a lot of it is quite beautiful. However, I enjoy it much more in small doses (a song or two here and there) than listening to the whole album, which gets to be too slow and new age-y for my taste, too dreamy in a way. That's why my favorite track by far is "Yeranos" which picks up the pace and with its beat-driven sound is more reminiscent of Natacha's solo work. Still, I would recommend big fans of Natacha's work at least give the album a listen; there are some interesting and beautiful passages, and it shows another side of her. (JoAnn Whetsell)
Thanks to JoAnn Whetsell for work on this entry.
