Ben Shemie
Desiderata
About this item
Recommended If You Like: Floating Points, Stars of the Lid, SUUNS, FACS, Peaking Lights, Jerusalem In My Heart. Channeling his background in classical music, SUUNS’ Ben Shemie combines string fractals, manipulated vocals, and synth-powered chaos to bridge the universes of past, present, and future. Over the course of ten tracks, Shemie chronicles a wandering soul tangled in its own dark orbit, searching for meaning in a world of stardust and astral mirages. Breathing life into Shemie’s orchestral maneuvers was the Molinari String Quartet, one of Canada's most celebrated contemporary ensembles. Recording the album’s ten tracks in two single-takes, the urgency and dynamism of these compositions can be heard as much felt. The listener can sense the stuttering pulse of Shemie, flanked by five amplifiers and wading in electronic bedlam, as the Molinari Quartet switchbacks measures of strings and chimes. Sometimes, the only way to make sense of the world is to travel to its absolute end. While Shemie’s image of a faraway universe is equal parts inspiring and chaotic, he assures the listener everything and everyone is exactly as it should be.
TRACK LISTING
1 The Departure
2 The Eye
3 The Mirror
4 The Future Indefinite
5 The Tower (Part 1)
6 The Tower (Part 2)
7 The Passage
8 The Other Being
9 The Past Continuous
10 The Return