With the greatest pleasure Infinite fog Prod. presents: "The Trail Of Genghis Khan" by Lisa Gerrard & Cye Wood !
Whatever you know about Mongolia, hardly you could tell more than an Australian traveler Tim Kop, who left 3 years of his life in the marvelous Mongolian steppes, certainly taking with him far more impressions than many can take in his entire life. The film about this nomadic journey was released by the ABC Television Group, and has received many awards, including National Geographic (Australian Geographic).
The album ‘The Trail of Genghis Khan’ made by Cye Wood in collaboration with Lisa Gerrard, it sourced from material that Lisa and Cye produced for the documentary series ‘The Trail of Genghis Khan’, this album is an emotive interpretation of Tim Cope’s epic journey on horseback from Mongolia to Hungary. Drawing on inspiration from this rugged & majestic landscape and the culture & inhabitants of this unique part of the world, they have allowed their intuition to be the guiding force in the creation of these works.
Lisa Gerrard, widely known for her magical voice, by the work in Dead Can Dance and the grandiose soundtracks, together with the Australian violinist multi-instrumentalist Cye Wood, currently based in Berlin, portrayed the emotions and impressions of the epic journey in musical form.
Cye and Lisa, both extraordinary musicians who have devoted their entire lives to music since the early years, and it's no surprise that they could find the perfect mutual understanding and create such a wonderful album worthy of being named one of the best in the discography of both authors. Cye already had experience working with Lisa Gerrard as a violinist on her solo album "The Black Opal" 2009. And a year later the first full-length joint work "The Trail of Genghis Khan" was ready. Charming melodies, excellent arrangements, perfectly balanced atmosphere and a bewitching plot of songs, all this in a compartment with the inimitable vocals of Lisa Gerard is "The Trail of Genghis Khan".
Cye’s work delves into many aspects of sound creation, including improvisation, composition, production, performance, sound installation, and field recording. His live and recorded work invokes a deep listening state, drawing audiences into familiar, yet uncharted territories. He began studying classical violin at the age of 3, and was performing professionally by the age of 10. At the age of 14 he began working as a session musician, and it was during this time that his life long love affair with the recording studio began.He has contributed string arrangements and solo violin to many albums and film projects, and performed with a diverse array of artists including – Eartha Kitt, Sarah Blasko, Hein Cooper, Angus Stone, Yeshe and many others.His first release arrived in the form of ‘Araya’. Primarily consisting of piano, strings, field recordings and solo violin, all 4 songs were performed and composed by Cye, and recorded and produced with engineer/producer Antony Payn.
reviews:
"Though Lisa Gerrard will probably always be best known for her work in Dead Can Dance, the outfit she formed with fellow Australian Brendan Perry in the early ‘80s and with whom she released nine albums between 1984 and 1995, a collaborative project such as The Trail of Genghis Khan shows that her creative life didn't end with that celebrated project. Aside from her involvement in Dead Can Dance, she's issued solo albums (1995's The Mirror Pool, 2006's The Silver Tree, 2014's Twilight Kingdom), collaborations (with Pieter Bourke 1998's Duality and Patrick Cassidy 2004's Immortal Memory), and soundtracks (among the films and documentaries she's scored or contributed to are The Insider, Gladiator, Whale Rider, and Heat).
For the soundtrack album to the ABC documentary series The Trail of Genghis Khan, she found another kindred spirit in Berlin-based Cye Wood, a classically trained violinist and multi-instrumentalist who produces music under the Cave In The Sky name (Songhellir was released on 1631 Recordings in 2016) when not contributing scores to film projects (the award-winning short film Piercing Silence and feature film Hello Forever) and composing for contemporary dance productions.
To a large degree, the musical terrain explored in Wood's collaboration with Gerrard will seem like familiar territory to Dead Can Dance listeners. The ten tracks encompass a wide range of world music styles and instruments, with Eastern European and folk elements audible parts of the mosaic. As a child growing up in Melbourne, Gerrard absorbed the sounds of Greek, Turkish, and Irish melodies that flowed into the streets of her neighbourhood, and it's certainly possible to hear evidence of that background in the soundtrack. The film itself traces the journey undertaken by Tim Cope on horseback from Mongolia to Hungary, and the composers naturally drew upon the landscapes and their inhabitants for inspiration during the music production process.
Bowed strings (violin and viola), percussion, lute, and acoustic guitar figure prominently, and a mournful, supplicating tone permeates many of the settings, evidenced most audibly in Gerrard's emotive, oft-wordless vocalizing. Music of such evocative character lends itself well to a soundtrack application, and even in the absence of the film's corresponding visuals images quickly form in response to the musical design; during “Call of the Steppes - Part I,” for example, visuals are hardly necessary when Gerrard's voice conveys sadness so hauntingly on its own. The Trail of Genghis Khan is the kind of project that lends itself naturally to accommodating a large number of traditional acoustic instrument sounds, and it's also not unusual for earthy chants and folk ballads to work their way into the presentation." May 2017 by http://textura.org
