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 Caught in the Carousel - Music Reviews and More
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Sonos
Sonos
Big Helium Records
"...there is a Musick where ever there is a Harmony," Sir Thomas Browne wrote in 1643. No doubt he would have applied this same sentiment to the Los Angeles-based a capella outfit Sonos. Rife with vocal harmonies that come with rich idiosyncrasies and inventive arrangements, the ten numbers that make up the group's self-titled debut practically reinvent the genre. Made up of music theorists, ethnomusicologists, opera singers, theatre majors, Berklee graduates and a cruise ship entertainer who can beatbox better than anyone, Sonos is a troupe of dazzling depth and talent. Their reworking of the Fleet Foxes' "White Winter Hymnal" transforms it into a number that sounds surely wrested from the 16th century; the way the vowels and consonants twist and merge through a reading of Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place" reveals the true complexity of the composition, while Jessica Hoops' "Summertime" which is given a pure tribal beat, evokes the soaring, open plains of Africa. Elsewhere, The Bird And The Bee's "Again And Again" manages a dizzying, blissful pace, Rufus Wainwright's "Oh What A World" sounds like it's being delivered from a Royal mountaintop and Magnet's "Hold On" is made over into an inspiring number about the perseverance of the human heart. What these singers manage to do with their voices defies conventional description; the sheer fluidity adds up to a uniquely majestic and harmonic beauty. These are songs from outer space; songs from galaxies away with great open mouths of light and long throats full of stars.
—Alex Green
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