I Awake Review

Sarah Blasko’s most recent album I Awake is a truly refreshing record. Her instrumentation and melodic structures bring something truly different to the music scene, an applaudable accomplishment.

Instead of bowing to the pop music scene, Blasko keeps popular influences far away, focusing on the working out of a side of humanity that is not just the sexual and recording with a beautiful orchestra, rather than including the electronica “doof-doof” sound so commonly heard on today’s radio.

The title song I Awake is a beautiful contrast of tribal sounds and orchestral melodies. Blasko sings long notes that are broken up by stabs of the violins, while other string instruments play a complimentary melody and heavy drums beat loudly creating vidrgne levitra an astounding tension.

The orchestral sound brings a fascinating new depth to Blasko’s music, allowing for wonderful dynamics. Blasko uses the orchestra to create huge crescendos, but also strips the sound back in moving decrescendos. The instrumentation is used to create fascinating sounds that captivate the listener, some songs including multiple vocal lines, others using violins to harmonise, some including an entire

orchestra, others, such as An Oyster, A Pearl just a simple piano.

The album comes together spectacularly, the depth and challenge of the music and lyrics putting Blasko in the spotlight. The new record is a true example of the success of mixing sounds and using music to create emotion and explore complexity.