CARLA  DIRATZ & The ARCHERS of SORROW
The Scale
(2021 -  Discus Music - UK)

https://discusmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-scale-124cd-2021

Outside looking in, an errand being slowly treads on trespassed land, along with deeply wise spirits, reflecting partly muzzled rebels, so eager to spill the truth, side by side, with throats not yet slashed, expelling demons, and crowds of free improvisations, ambience, stark landscapes, opposite lush stage, murmuring the important vibrations from the framework, worming every ounce of it out... THIS is "The Scale" with Carla Diratz with The Archers of Sorrow, on the ever wonderful Discus Music label. There be something wise coming your way.

A defiant work, among so many challenging releases by French vocalists Carla Diratz, this may require big gloves, extended arms, and big broad imagination to pull in, and partake as needed. Far beyond earthly comparisons of Nico, other avant transients only slightly resembling moonbeamers, and farscape explorers from decades quickly past; Diratz has a voice all her own, in the huge atmosphere not yet measured.  Knowing for a fact, Carla does nothing without feeling it, taking it deep, and deciding as a supreme actor, that she can make it a personal and fully spiritual experience, each release she is involved in, is a treat, for our ears only.

 With a marvelous ensemble of musicians to make this master piece occur, we have Carla Diratz - vocal/ Martin Archer - saxophones, keyboards, electronics/ Nick Robinson - guitars/ Dave Sturt - bass guitar/ Adam Fairclough - drums/ Charlotte Keeffe - trumpet/ Jan Todd - backing vocals/ and Julie Archer - backing vocals. A listening experience is not just a sentence, but a set of emotions spurting an alien light show all around your room, spitting back the contrast of neon to dark colors into your head. A combination of sneaky lanterns and hidden blades, to keep your senses alert,  and quick to prepare this rare imbibement. Her involvement of Eclectic Maybe Band is enough for newcomers to jump at the chance to find nuances past the known universe. This group of magnificent musicians are some of the finest framers of brilliant music on the planet. Few people such as Martin Archer see the depths of others as he does.

The styles of music thrown underneath Carla's throaty and instantly expressive voice, is nearly invisible, as the most brilliant actors keep themselves void of the presence, as they speak their lines. The holy grail of the entire recording is made up of this very core, the sublime, and the arrangements from the most professional artists, to allow Ms Carla Diratz to move her voice through subterranean layers too deep to mine otherwise. Bubbling up in slow motion, generating skywards stardust, that rains back down on only the lucky, it is most certain that you have never been present to another recording equal to this, or even anything exactly parallel. Expect a different beauty, a freshly dug treasure. and something of an underground burial that came from way up there, where no one else has seen so far. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and on my TOP CHOICES list of 2021.

  ©Reviewed by Lee Henderson 3 - 01 - 2022