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Aline’s étoile magique: éclipse

By Mike Jurkovic
September 9, 2023
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Whether 23andMe.com, MyHeritage.com, or ancestry.com can positively divine gypsy blood in award-winning, Canadian violinist

Aline Homzy

violin

" data-original-title="" title="">Aline Homzy is conceptually and musically neither here nor there. What is important is that she jumps from the gate on her robust debut recording with a zesty momentum which she mightily sustains throughout.

Homzy, who has no problem mixing it up with any of Canada's musical vanguard, (guitarist & composer

David Occhipinti

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">David Occhipinti, creative bassist

Andrew Downing

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Andrew Downing, the folky Weather Station, or pianist

Amanda Tosoff

piano
b.1983

" data-original-title="" title="">Amanda Tosoff) synthesizes it all (and, as the whole of Eclipse plays out, all in one performance) with the feel of a classicist on three day shore leave.

Whatever the influence of her musicologist father, Andrew Homzy,?who just happens to be scholar on all things

Duke Ellington

piano
1899 - 1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Duke Ellington,

Charles Mingus

bass, acoustic
1922 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Mingus and

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk or her studies with Mingus arranger

Sy Johnson

composer / conductor
b.1930

" data-original-title="" title="">Sy Johnson, Eclipse is an exciting and most intriguing encounter. Leading the pack, Homzy steers her most flexible and formidable Aline's?étoile magique—vibraphonist

Michael Davidson

vibraphone

" data-original-title="" title="">Michael Davidson, guitarist

Thom Gill

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Thom Gill, bassist

Dan Fortin

bass, acoustic
b.1985

" data-original-title="" title="">Dan Fortin, and drummer

Marito Marques

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Marito Marques—through a series of compositional twists and turns which keep listeners guessing and listening intently.

"Caraway" with its gypsy yearnings, sails along on the keen interplay between Davidson and Margues, and serves to buoy Homzy's high country wail. "Cosmos" floats in on clouds of Davidson's vibes as Homzy's clear-voiced violin sings a song of faraway homes. The tune turns into a free form passage, then turns again into something more studied, yet free of definition. Which is how the violinist likes it.

The Japanese call it hanakotoba (the language of flowers). So "Hanakotoba" here is a wistful daydream, something to calm the nerves as the sun goes down. "Circa Herself" is a bright dance infused with Caribbean ocean breezes. Then the tide rushes in and the tune becomes even brighter, as

João Frade

accordion

" data-original-title="" title="">Jo?o Frade's accordion trades off with Homzy and everyone gets in on the cha cha.

Guitarist Gill catches the melodic grit on Eclipse's sole cover,

Charlie Parker

saxophone, alto
1920 - 1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Charlie Parker's "Segment." "Aliens are Pieces of Wind" is a fun bit of deconstruction, prog rock but thankfully not quite. The imaginative, "Mesarthim," with its manipulated theremin and synth wraps itself around Homzy's chamber-like performance. "Le belle et l'abeille" (beauty and the bee) imagines a warm, sunshine day then invites listeners to share it with the band. And it is that open invitation which lies at the big heart of Eclipse.

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Track Listing

Caraway; Cosmos; Hanakotoba; Circa Herself; Rose du ciel; Aliens are Pieces of Wind; Le belle et l’abeille; Mesarthim; Starring Space; Segment; Beinntot, We Will Collide.

Personnel

Aline Homzy

violin

Michael Davidson

vibraphone

Marito Marques

drums

Dan Fortin

bass, acoustic

Thom Gill

guitar

Jo?o Frade

accordion

Felicity WIlliams

vocals

Aline's étoile magique

Additional Instrumentation

Aline Hozmy: theramin (#8)

Album information

Title: éclipse | Year Released: 2023 | Record Label: Elastic Recordings

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