VAMPIRE SUIT: Gaze at Your Omphalos

Vampire Suit

Gaze at Your Omphalos

© 2004 Yair Vilnai (829757812526)

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A trip around our collective musical subconciousness that goes from the marshes of the Balkans to the deserts of North Africa and everywhere in between.

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Vampire Suit plays the kind of music you hear in your dreams, when the leprechauns stop over by your pillow on their nighttime journey between Africa, the Balkans and India. It is what Puck was humming to himself as he put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes. It is the songs of the ghosts of our forefathers as they are heard through the prism of the 21st century. It is brand new, but is carried by timeless traditions that came before. It is a bright-green, strong leaf on a tree whose roots are thousands of years old.

Vampire Suit creates a highly personal musical texture that takes you from the tribal dances of North Africa to the marshes of the Balkans. The band's unique sound comes from drawing on rhythms and forms of musical traditions from around the world and infusing them with ideas and harmonies from jazz, 20-century music, blues and other modern genres. The result is a musical journey that is at once personal and global, music that is at the same time unmistakably modern, yet feels old and familiar, a new tradition for a generation that hails from so many traditions.

Vampire Suit has been bringing its unique music to listeners all over New York. Whether it's demanding jazz audiences in clubs like Sweet Rhythm, Cornelia Street Cafe or Barbes, or sophisticated rockers at places like CBGB, Vampire Suit has touched people in a profound way. Managing to avoid categorization, the band speaks to music that exists in our collective unconsciousness in its intensity, directness and beauty.

'If you are interested in Balkan/Middle Eastern New York Edition fusion, check out Jay Vilnai's Vampire Suit... it has been hitting the city with poly-cultural textures and sounds. Open your ears to something off the typical beaten path.'
-Gotham Jazz News

Vampire Suit:
Jay Vilnai - Guitars
Skye Steele - Violin
Gary Pickard - Reeds
Mike Savino - Bass
Kevin Garcia - Percussion

reviews

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  • author: download.com

    Dramatic string sections mix with free-styling guitars, lively horn parts, and sparse percussion to create an airy, festive, free-formed atmosphere. The New York band pulls off the smelting of worldly styles with a beautiful touch.

  • author: jazzreview.com

    If Bram Stoker's imaginary Transylvania had a jazz scene, the music might sound something like this. Their songs, full of droning violins and guitars playing in minor scales alongside crashing cymbals harmonize nicely with the splashing rain and gray skies.

  • I love it! Even better than his previous album.
    author: Ronim

    I think the Vampire suit's stuff is amazing. I got the first album through a friend and it's playing in my itunes playlist together with the likes of Coltrain and Miles Davis. I got my hands on this album and in about two minutes it was in my iTunes as well on repeat. It's brilliant. I really like the way he combines Jazz with eastern European and Jewish influences, as well as some Middle Eastern. I wonder if Jay is an Amercian born and raised or wheather he just works in the states. Two thumbs up, either way. Highly recommended.

  • author: Cadence Magazine

    Ethnic rhythms of the Middle-East are at the heart of the performance, which progresses as a suite broken by alternating tempo but linked by its strong, vibrant pulse. Vilnai composed the entire score, which has a defined structure but enough open avenues to permit the soloists to design outside the lines... The combination of guitar and violin works extremely well with this band. Steele makes his instrument sing joyously and Vilnai injects a mellow, bell-toned guitar tone as they negotiate through the movements...The music has enduring beauty that touches on the heart of the Middle East’s musical culture while exhibiting a bit of Western flair. Open improvisations and the spirit of the belly dance coexist, encouraging the traditional undulating hip movements as a supplement in responding to the solid instrumentation.

  • inventive, reflective, involving.
    author: David Green

    The music on this CD ranges from wistful melancholy (as in Lullaby) to the exuberant almost inebriated celebration of Baklava. It uses dissonance to create the achingly sweet, it is inventive, and often introspective, but in all these different modes it strikes me that there is always a feeling of complex weaving of elements. It is always a kind of tapestry even at its wildest and loosest. Bravo!

  • A wild Balkan ride with incredible musicianship and fun!
    author: Gil Shuster

    The music is lively, sprawling, fun, adventurous and clever. And did I say toe-tapping? It's weaving in and out of instruments and textures will leave you wondering how the hell do they do that? And where am I? And wanting more. Balkan wedding band, New Orleans brass band, klezmer, jazz and lots more swirl together and make for very interesting, enjoyable and fun listening.

  • Vampire, Cosmopolitan and Free spirit
    author: HK Kim

    Listening to Vampire Suit' I got a sense that they are my kind of folks. Vampires who secretly dream of setting fire in this world and make it clean and holy.... And I realize again why I love New York city madly - because I want to meet my kind of folks.. Cosmopolitans who dare to cross the boundaries... Vampires who can empathize with the folks in darkness.... Free spirits who can dream of lost paradise.... These are all about their music.... Hope you listener will have a wonderful journey like me.... Just don't get too astray otherwise you may don't want to come back...

  • Stunningly beautiful
    author: Stephen Klein

    With a unique contemporary interpretation, Vampire Suit magicallly captures the ecstasy of these traditional music forms of Balkan/Slavic/ Klezmer/North African Jazz. Due to the magnificent tapestries and the clever licks, a listener of this band can take an inexpensive holiday and easily lose themselves in a trance-like state. For both the indoctrinated and those unfamiliar with these Jazz forms.

  • great tunes, extremely tight band, very well engineered, great solos...
    author: Jamie Jordan

    This cd is an excellent representation of Vampire Suits' work. Well mastered, the music is composed, arranged, and performed at an extremely high level worthy of much praise. Gaze at Your Omphalos is a great cd.

  • The music lurking within is spirited and enjoyable.
    author: Time Out New York

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