- Art pop
- Post-pop
- Alternative
- Avant-soul
- Singer-songwriter
- Indie
- Avant-pop
- Sophisti-pop
- Space pop
Comment: Mart
Avi is a young Estonian art popster who first got attention with such
dance rock combos Badass Yuki, and Stones & Holes approximately
10 years ago. However, some years later he started to foster his solo
career with potent albums like
After Hours (2013),
Humanista
(2015),
Rogue Wave (2016), and more recently
OtherWorld.
The last three albums constitute a more logical unit due to those
sparkling and triumphant yet uncanny poppy incantations as if travelling across an
endless astral meadow. For sure, his music is an other world even if
you can find out some parallels with such artists as David Sylvian,
David Bowie, Scott Walker, The Blue Nile, and Jarvis Cocker and Pulp`s more introvert yet magical bigger-than-life numbers like
Seductive Barry,
This Is Hardcore,
F.E.E.L.I.N.G C.A.L.L.E.D L.O.V.E, and
Weeds II. By the way, I heard a
mystical, a bit medieval-tinged Dead Can Dance, and a somber,
Treasure-era Cocteau Twins either. In fact, it is normal you
can find out some parallels with other artists because an artist`s
purpose should not be to fend off previous impulses. It is
indispensable to come together with them. The most important question
is – how all these influences will result in? Does it add some
extra value separately and to previous ones as well? I would like to
call a music album as an intersubjective experience. You cannot
separate it from the past and from the present. While listening to
this 8-track album I was running in a darkening forest and the
experience was ennobling and frightening at the same time. The dark
blue-tinged wall which surrounded me got saturated with a spirited
vibe. Was it evil? Was is friendly? Is it a stupid question (of course, it is)? I did
not mention before that Mart Avi has been requested as a guest
vocalist for many Estonian underground acts. His baritone-tinged
singing used to prevail though it is infused more than before with
soulful intakes. Similarly to Ariel Pink you cannot categorize him
neither temporally nor stylistically. In fact, it is an exquisite
play with their own borders to have them and not having them given
that the borders must be to an extent to embrace their own spirit.
Superb.
