|  | | | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
wonderful Oct 18, 2009
This charming little album seems to be heavily influenced by the American 1920'2-30s in its production. Antebellum is the best track, for sure, a mini masterpiece. Kansas has a Playboy Mommy/ Scarlet's Walk quality about it (thumbs way up on this). In Another Life has that late jazz era feel to it, Augustine is so fun, No Gringo is poignant and beautiful, and Watershed is amazingly beautiful, if not outstandingly creepy--in the best ways possible. Just wow!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Exotic emotional and excellent Aug 31, 2009
I had the privilege of seeing Ms. Teng live last week and picked up "Inland Territory" after the performance. I've heard her music classified as everything from jazz to roots, the sound is a wonderful fusion of beautifully arranged accoustics and harmony. The percussion's everything from electronic pads to 'found objects.' In the concert, her drummer sat on a wooden trunk he was periodically pounding for a deep bass effect.
Just a sampling of what you get from the dozen songs on this collection:
"Grandmother's Song" was on that night's billing and the announcer afterward called it a bluegrass song. Ms. Teng gave us some of the background. This song really is her conversation with a member of her family about her life. You see, she has a computer degree from Stanford as well as being a classical pianist.
"Stray Italian Greyhound" is a complex orchestrated piece with the energy and grace of the slender animals that lend their names.
"Augustine" simply soars like a prayer with driving percussion that lifts the music and vocals up like a prayer.
"Antebellum" was inspired by traveling through the American South while Ms. Teng was on tour. The Knoxville, Tennessee audience highly approved.
In sum, the music's exquisitely crafted. If you enjoy different and thoughtfully crafted music, I believe you will appreciate this CD.
Rebecca Kyle, August 2009
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Vermeer in audio form Aug 21, 2009
Teng's arrangements on songs like "Antebellum" and "St. Stephen's Cross" have been described as similar to chamber music, but it seems to me more like the reposed beauty of a Vermeer painting. Like his calmly splendid interior scenes, Teng's songs grab one with immediate fascination.
A common theme to the lyrics is ecological and social calamity. "The Last Snowfall," wonders aloud how one would see the world if one knew it would soon end (either because one was going to die, or because the world was ending). Taken alone, it would be a fine Unitarian hymn. In the album, it sets the tone. The next song, "White Light," addresses the destructive habits of modern individuals: "If you knew it was wrong, why did you do it?" "Antebellum" uses an analogy between damaged marriages and civil war; "No Gringo" describes a switching of places between the Anglo and Latino populations of Arizona (from the point of view of a young displaced Anglo). "Watershed" is a blunt warning of impending ecological disaster; "Just the Radio" of civil war, a la Sri Lanka. The other songs are more personal in theme, but even then include odd passages that refer to political crisis.
(In case the point is missed, the liner notes include a tribute to Jared Diamond, probably for *Collapse*.)
It's hard to imagine a thematically darker album than one organized around realistic scenarios for the apocalypse. Yet Teng makes it work artistically with complex, erudite allusions and exquisitely poignant orchestration. "Watershed" is one of the most terrifying songs I've heard; the music, perfectly attuned to the meaning of the lyrics, is like Sibelius' 1st symphony in its anguished grandeur. "St. Stephen's Cross" is tender relaxing of the tension in a ballad about a genuinely personal moment; it may be alluding to the fact that we are ultimately spectators in history after all, and actors only in the present.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Take a remarkable journey to ...Vienna Teng's "Inland Territory" Jul 12, 2009
From the first notes of "The Last Snowfall", the opening song to Vienna Teng's latest (and possibly greatest) masterpiece "Inland Terrirtory", you will immediately know that you are about to embark on a truly beautiful journey and will be taken to special places again by this truly amazing and gifted singer / somgwriter / musician / poet and artist. For the record, I am a diehard fan and have been from the very early days but despite my possible lack of objectivity, I believe I can empahtically say (fan or no fan) that this is one of the most beautiful records to be heard in quite some time. Virtually all of your emotions will come into play during the course of this 12 song journey to points of heart and soul and time and places far reaching. The opening song (The Last Snowfall) brought tears upon my first listen, while another song (Stray Itallian Greyhound) brought joy to my heart and especially so given the context it has in the artist's life. With each new CD release (this being the 4th), Vienna Teng goes further and wider into musical landscapes not travelled before and continues with her formidable growth as an artist. She is a very special one of a kind treasure who must be heard. Aside from the beauty and diversity of the music, the CD is a lyrical tour de force and can easily stand on its own as poetry for its content and beauty. Although I am a fan of everything she has ever done, this CD (possibly my new favorite)embodies many elements of her past work while forging into uncharted spaces as well... one case in point "No Gringo", an extraordinarily powerful and moving treatment of the plight of Mexican families just trying to survive another day. Other favorites from the long list include "Antebellum" , "Kansas", "St.Stephen's Cross", "White Light", "Radio", and "Augustine".
Sonically, The CD is as beautiful and varied as the songs themselves and Vienna has never been in finer voice or of greater accomplishment on piano. She continues to grow and reach for new heights even when you thought she had already hit the pinnacle. Special mention too for Alex Wong, Vienna's musical collaborator in the studio (this CD is self produced by Vienna and Alex), and on the road where I have been fortunate enough to see them at work together on numerous occasions. Alex even contributed as a co- author on the one and only song Vienna has co-written (Antebellum). They are a great team and along with a few other special guest collaborators on the CD make this one what it is.
Inland Territory is a treasure chest of new works to be enjoyed and treasured for a long time...it is an essential add to your music library.
Thank you Vienna for this gift to all of us.
Steve O
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Absolutely breathtaking music. Jun 14, 2009
The first song I heard of Vienna Teng was her lullaby, Green Island Serenade, sung in Chinese, on Youtube. She immediately captured my attention then. A fine example of truly thoughtful and heartfelt music, her heart visibly resonates within each word and note of her songs.
This album is for me a continuation of the brilliance she showed in her previous album Dreaming Through the Noise. Though this album does not outshine Dreaming Through the Noise as my favorite one, it definitely has a solid spot in my heart.
If you're looking for music that will have you dreaming in vivid color (or perhaps vivid monochrome), then this is it.
The album itself is a beautiful collage of different styles and influences that have obviously significantly shaped the now New York based ex-San Francisco. The record was recorded over five months in four cities, which counts for the incorporation of many tastes and textures within her songs. A much widely varied and observant collection, it will surely take you along with her as she trudges on her tour.
To sample a few of my favorites:
(1) The Last Snowfall features her gentle vocals against keyboards, and bursts of background vocals. A very simple song but packs a vivid imagery of a winter day wherein perhaps you sit by the window and take a moment to think of your life and those you value. "If this were the last slow curling/Of your fingers in my palm/If this were the last I felt you breathing/How would I carry on?" -- the song should speak for itself.
(3) Antebellum, the first song that caught my attention in this album, is, as a friend of mine has pointed out, very American -- and most definitely not the bad way. It would fit right in with a movie, but it isn't painfully cliche. The lyrics are creatively crafted to portray its message, and the message itself is pretty powerful.
(4) Kansas, a slow and sleepy jazz, has a story of heartbreak and regret told in a gentle and nostalgic manner. It can be a beautiful piece to ferry you away into dreams. For me, a very visual person, I see yellow-and-brown photographs, afternoons in bed with coffee, walks under the burning colors of fall... very beautifully executed. It's not a song that will catch your eye immediately like Antebellum, but in itself it is beautiful.
(7) An amusing thing about the seventh song, Stray Italian Greyhound, is that it actually talks of Barack Obama. I never did expect that, but when I saw and heard her talking of it on a video I laughed and thought, "Well, of course, why didn't I think of that?" The song was about hope, she said, hope in hard times, rekindled even in a broke college graduate who just wants to lie back, already having decided to live with a cynical view of the world. Dogs can do that. Or foster children. A new friend. A book. This is a nicely done song, very poetic and one of the cruxes of her creativity, I think.
For those who are searching for something new, something that is not a heavily popularized bland and/or overused tune, something that can for a change spark a thought or a curl of emotion in your chest, this is it. Don't miss her; she's a very good artist, a promising one I look forward to hearing more from in the future.
|
| |
|
![Up (4 Disc Combo Pack with Digital Copy and DVD) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51V%2Beipy8-L._SL75_.jpg "Up (4 Disc Combo Pack with Digital Copy and DVD) [Blu-ray]")
![Across the Universe [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51T24FuHPEL._SL75_.jpg "Across the Universe [Blu-ray]")
![Underworld Trilogy (Underworld / Underworld: Evolution / Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F27VzUl%2BL._SL75_.jpg "Underworld Trilogy (Underworld / Underworld: Evolution / Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) [Blu-ray]")
![Shakira: Oral Fixation Tour [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RQUEopdlL._SL75_.jpg "Shakira: Oral Fixation Tour [Blu-ray]")
