Photo of the family elan

the family elan

the family elan Radio

Music

FEATURED SONG
Kavalla Oyun Havasi
  1. Play
  2. Play Next
  3. Add to queue
Kavalla Oyun Havasi
Album:
Released: Jan 1, 2010
Label:

General Info

  • Genre: Lounge / Psychedelic / Tropical

    Location Bradford, Un

    Profile Views: 52542

    Last Login: 1/21/2012

    Member Since 11/22/2006

    Website www.thefamilyelan.com

    Record Label alt.vinyl, Locust Music

    Type of Label Indie

  • Bio

  • Members

    Current performing trio of Chris Hladowski (electric bouzouki and Turkish saz), Harry Wheeler (electric bass), Mark Hearne (percussion, vocals) ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................ plus at various times and places Hanna Tuulikki, Patrick Farmer, Stephanie Hladowski, Roman Stefanowski, Anatol Krakowiecki.

  • Influences

  • Sounds Like

    REVIEWS FOR "BOW LOW BRIGHT GLOW" ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... "Has anyone ever truly reckoned the influence The Incredible String Band continues to exert on successive generations of British folk musicians? Those in doubt should listen immediately to The Family Elan's latest album - follow up to 2007's debut Stare Of Dawn. Take the eight minute opening track, "Thousands Of Patterns Of You", with its drone, tabla and finger cymbals, its meandering, episodic storytelling, and the way Hanna Tuulikki's quirky, little girl vocals summon the spirit of erstwhile ISB vocalist Licorice McKechnie, twined around Chris Hladowski's more stentorian, bardic tone. The whole thing plays like an astonishingly accurate impersonation of an outtake from I Looked Up. Moreover, The Family Elan's central preoccupation with the folk music of Asia Minor, while unusual, is a direct descendent of ISB's pioneering 1960s work incorporating non-Western instruments and influences into traditional European folk and Early Music, all given a psychedelic tweak...Which isn't to deny that it's all deliriously entertaining. For most of the tracks here, Yorkshireman Hladowski (largely playing stringed instruments including oud, bouzouki and guitar) and Finnish-English vocalist and flautist Tuulikki are joined by Patrick Farmer on Egyptian tablas and other percussion, blazing through a selection of dances and folk song from Uzbekistan, Greece, Azerbaijan and elsewhere with puckish abandon - in much the same way that Jeremy Barnes (a former collaborator with Hladowski) has done with the music of the Balkans through his work with A Hawk And A Hacksaw. It's done with a clear-eyed instrumental virtuosity that sets it apart from most free folk, but Hladowski's original compositions allow the wyrd-psych aspect to come to the fore, with "Our Bed Is Green" incorporating freeform ripples and heat-haze electric guitar along with stoner vocals reminiscent of MV+EE before they became a Neil Young tribute act. Put simply, it's unselfconsciously upbeat, 21st century acid-World-folk - and the perfect plate-smashing music, too." Daniel Spicer, The Wire .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. "The Family Elan release a new album out this week courtesy of those nice folks at Alt Vinyl. If the name doesn't ring a bell then let me enlighten you... They had an album out previously on the rather ace Locust label and the band consists of Chris Hladowski (has played with Hawk & A Hacksaw, Nalle, Ashtray Navigations. Daniel Padden and probably more I'm too tired to list) and Hanna Tuulikki who is otherwise known as Nalle (albums on Picked Egg & Locust!). With her voice and his knowledge of eastern European folk instruments they make a vintage folk cacophony which would please anyone with two ears and a brain. I never heard the debut but on the strength of this one I'd say it's worth checking out as well. There's a very medieval folk feel to this with the flute and bouzouki being ever present. Mind you the tablas on track 5 (I can't read the writing on the back... bloody medieval folk writing) add another dimension to it. 'Bow Low Bright Glow' is good. I like it. I think you will too if you're into traditional Eastern European folk. The vinyl is packaged in a great shiny lino sleeve which you can't help but rub until your finger prints are no more. An excellent listen from start to end!!". Norman Records album of the week (29th January 2010) ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... "A very very fine follow-up to the wonderful "Stare of Dawn" from Chris Hladowski ( Nalle / Scatter / The One Ensemble). The music is again very much influenced by Eurasian / Eastern European folk music and based around Chris playing bazouki, saz, sitar among other things I've never heard of no doubt. He is joined by fellow Nalle member Hanna Tuulikki on a variety of recorders / flutes and vocals and Patrick Farmer on percussion. The album opens with the stunning "Thousands of Patterns of You" which morphs from traditional folk song to multi-layered string devotional to joyful folk-dance that makes you want to dance. This could sum up the rest of the album which is divided between interpretations of traditional tunes and Chris' own compositions. It's extraordinary: from the quality of musicianship - Chris is truly a god of long-necked lutes and Hanna's flute-playing exquisitely avian. Another fantastic track is "The Black Planets of Her Eyes" which starts out as an Azeri folk tune and then becomes a dark mystical devotional with Chris chanting like a chorus of monks on a mountaintop, like an unholy meeting of A Hawk and A Hacksaw and Vibracathedral Orchestra somewhere in the Urals. As I said, extraordinary stuff. Beautifully recorded by John Cavanagh at Glo-Spot. Gatefold sleeve with Hanna Tuulikki's expressive artwork. Heavy vinyl.". Gayle Brogan, Boa Melody Bar. ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... "Rapturous experimental folk, tinged with East European promise. Formerly of Scatter, Chris Hladowski and Hanna Tuulikki have emerged from the Glasgow free folk scene with a ravishing fusion of Balkan trance and ecstatic drone-song. Liberal deployment of bouzoukis, frame drums, dulcimers and Jew's harps ensures "Kavalla Oyun Havasi" and "Rok Mashki" keep one foot in the medieval troubadour world, while "Our Bed Is Green" recalls the drumless songs of late MBV. Hladowski's robotic strum and Patrick Farmer's buzzing percussion conjure hypnotic washes of colour, while Tuulikki yelps glorious sun salutations on "The Black Planets Of Her Eyes". Rob Young, UNCUT **** ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... REVIEWS FOR "STARE OF DAWN" ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... "Chris Hladowski is a member of Glasgow based folk wierdos The One Ensemble, led by Volcano The Bear's Daniel Padden, and the trio Nalle. The Family Elan is his own project, and while both the group's name and the fact that this debut album features Nalle's Hanna Tuulikki suggest otherwise, it is essentially a one man operation. Stare of Dawn is built around Hladowski's tough, confident performances on bouzouki and related instruments, embellished with his slightly dazed vocals and errant fiddle work. Each piece sounds like it might take off in another direction at any moment, and both "All Around" and "Cascade - Danse of Airs" (the latter clocking in at 16 minutes) frequently do. When Hladowski achieves instrumental levitation, the ghosts of Comus, Jan Dukes De Grey and The Incredible String Band might be hovering over his shoulder; there's a similar sense of acid-spiked, dervish abandon. Like the latter, he references ethnic music - Indian ragas, Balkan gypsy dances, Greek rembetika - but with a rare feeling and finesse, and not a trace of whimsy. As with Padden's ensemble, a deft balance is struck between the purposeful and the charmingly nonchalant. There's a dark sensuality to the sound, partly the result of the clash and overlap of overtones produced by the droning pedal notes of the various acoustic instruments, partly because of the strength of the modal melodies and their inspired variations. An exciting, dramatic and often hauntingly beautiful collection of songs.". Keith Moline, The Wire .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. "The Family Elan's Chris Hladowski claims inspiration from a vast array of regional historical forms, including Azerbaijani music of the 15th and 16th centuries, the Rebitiko sounds of early 20th century Greece, and the U.K. psych-folk outpouring of the 1960s. Whether the listener is capable of identifying each and every touchstone is probably unimportant – it's the sheer quantity of them that counts. On Stare of Dawn, Hladowski's debut, modal strings are bent, plucked and strummed into dizzying elliptical orbits. Figures tumble out of the multi-instrumentalist's bouzouki, guitar, and saz, intersecting with swooping violin lines and rattling, organic percussion before rushing onwards to complete their swirling figures. What keeps these lines from getting tangled, however, is the presence, at the center, of a sustained devotional tone – a crystalline om, placing all elements in their proper balance. On "All Around" – the record's 10-minute opener and arguably its strongest track – that om assumes the form of a bent, shimmering note that's shaken from one of Hladowski's long-necked lutes. The chiming string figures, mournful violin tones and haphazard percussive noises work furiously to encircle it, like the cyclone gusts of dry autumn leaves Hladowski sings about over-top. The West Yorkshire native's voice is thin – he's on Alasdair Roberts terrain with his talk of "A thousand nights / Of fire and wine," but he lacks the Scottish singer's expressive depth. Nevertheless, it's a limitation Hladowski seems to recognize, and he effectively effaces his words behind majestically glistening strings. In this way and others, Hladowski reminds me a lot of P.G. Six's Pat Gubler, whose singing is similarly tentative, but who finds a way of leveraging this limitation to his advantage. The two sound so similar in places that Hladowski's "Wide Eyed Fox" could just as easily be an outtake from Gubler's Well of Memory; collaborator Hanna Tuulikki's recorder notes flicker like candlelight over Hladowski's hushed, double-tracked vocals, which seem to be biding time before his nimble fingers can fully take the reins. Hladowski stays distinct from Gubler, as well as fellow travelers such as Pelt, however, by studiously avoiding things like distortion or tape hiss. The devotional quality of his music is linked with a kind of acoustic clarity, unencumbered by excessive modal droning or psychedelic murkiness. The beautiful "Over The Hills And Fields I Wander," the album's closing track, whirls colorfully on the strength of sun-dappled lute notes, forest glen fiddling, and clanging meter-keeping, swirling at mid-point into one of Stare of Dawn's few gnarled patches of sound. Nevertheless, it quickly recovers its feet for a chanting, reverent finish. If the folk underground has gotten crowded of late with devotees of Richard Thompson and Robin Williamson – not to mention those influences' influences – it can afford to make some room for a newcomer who proves his nominal élan. Stare of Dawn reveals the right combination of dexterous playing and unstudied feeling to qualify as a success.". Nathan Hogan, Dusted ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ "'Stare of Dawn'" is the debut outing for the Family Elan. The album is primarily the work of Chris Hladowski, who also plays in the groups Nalle, the One Ensemble, and Scatter. Hladowski is a virtuoso of sorts with stringed instruments and plays bouzouki, guitar, baglamas, fiddle, gimbri, and a variety of other instruments. Hanna Tuulikki offers additional help with flute, recorder, and vocals. Said to be inspired by the artists and music of Greece, the Middle East, and Eurasia, the resulting album is packed with beautiful, intoxicating folk. Every piece pulses with energy and skill as they transcends musical and geographic boundaries. What is most striking about 'Stare of Dawn' is the elegance and richness found in every one of the five tracks. Layers of stringed instruments create a flurry of rhythms punctuated by vocals and occasional percussion. The sound is so full that it is easy to think that dozens of instruments are playing at any given time. A deep emphasis on the arrangement of instrumental sounds and complex musical structures makes this album extremely compelling. One could try and focus on an individual instrument, but that seems almost impossible as each part is woven so tightly to the rest. One of the most striking pieces is "Cascade/Danse of Airs" which spans a whopping sixteen minutes, yet passes as if it were only a quarter of that length. In the opening "Cascade" portion, gorgeous, layered lute music plays out alongside light hand drumming as both Hladowski and Tuulikki sing. "Danse of Airs" picks up where the introduction leaves off and energizes the song with tight overlapping melodies and rhythms from the arsenal of stringed instruments on hand. The result is surprising in that it is both exhilarating and soothing due to the momentum of the tempo and the lushness of the instruments and arrangements. Listening to "Stare of Dawn" truly feels like stepping into another world for forty-five minutes and amazingly, this feeling does not lessen with repeated spins. Given the deep complexity and beauty of the music, it seems unimaginable that this album would ever stop sounding fresh and exiting. On so many levels, this album is a precious gem worthy of careful listening and untold hours of enjoyment. 10/10 -- Matt Blackall, Foxy Digitalis

Login

Forgot password?

Need an account? Sign up