Mark Barrott, Sketches From An Island

“BALEARIC MUSIC” BY MARK BARROTT IS A “GARDEN OF INTRIGUE AND DELIGHT”

I consider myself a fairly avid music fan, but I had never heard of “balearic music” until I received a copy of the album Sketches From an Island by musician Mark Barrott. According to the accompanying background materials, the island alluded to in the CD title is Ibiza which is part of a cluster known as the Balearic Islands off the coasts of Spain and France in the Mediterranean. Ibiza is known for its dance-till-dawn music clubs, and the DJs spinning the tunes historically would play whatever they could get their hands on, not just dance music, but pop, rock, hip-hop, house, industrial, acid jazz, new age, electronica, you name it. This eclecticism is the backbone of the balearic sound, which is kind of weird because if it encompasses almost anything and everything, how can it be distinctive? But, anyway, I did not know what to expect when I put the Mark Barrott CD on because it is touted as the chillout side of balearic music. Apparently when Ibiza dancers have had enough of hard-core dancing, they want to chill with some softer grooves. Here is where Barrott comes in. Although he is best-known as the guy who runs the International Feel label which puts out popular vinyl dance singles, in his spare time he creates chill sounds.

This all-instrumental CD kicks off with “Baby Come Home,” the most upbeat tune. It has a funky electronic beat with a flute handling the melody. “Dr. Nimm’s Garden of Intrigue & Delight” (what a title!) is a pulsing piece, almost industrial, with a multi-layered beat and a medium tempo. “Go Berri Be Happy,” another mid-tempo number, has a fast-fluttery rhythm and features not only synth and a strong synth bass, but also a high-string guitar sound (maybe a ukelele), plus some Caribbean steel drums at the end (and a woman laughing at the four-minute mark). The album becomes real mellow with “Essene” that has two electro-acoustic guitars over sandpaper percussion and, after a couple of minutes, some mellow synth.

The record picks up a bit with the nine-minute “Formentera Headspace Blues (Pts. 1 & 2).” This multi-layered tune has synth beats, a bongo-like patter, synth bass and steel drums halfway through. This bubbling, pulsing tune has two distinct sections with a little guitar in both parts. The recording continues to slow down with “Deep Water,” a gentle composition made up of a floating synth sound, plus synth wind, some conga rhythms, a haunting deep wood-flute sound, a light snare drum two-thirds of a way thru, and some repetitive piano. Another fairly mellow track is “Island Life” which starts with single synth notes over a synth wash with a pacing rhythm before the flute comes in and we hear slow notes over a fairly rapid beat and ending with 18-seconds of bird-calls. The album ends with the two slowest numbers -- “Back To The Sea” and “Sacred Islands.” The former starts and ends with seagulls and waves plus some haunting electric surf guitar in the middle. The last tune (over ten-minutes long) starts with a minute of bird sounds and ends with four-minutes-plus of the same. This fairly avant-garde piece has all kinds of this-and-that -- some strong and forceful piano chords, some synth violin notes, a few guitar plucks and some other synth that floats in and out. So the beginning of the CD is light-weight dance stuff and the end is sort of new age-ambient with a wide-variety (hallelujah the balearic sound) in between.

I have given this my best description, but you probably want to know about a recommendation. The music was quite enjoyable, and the only reason I would not give it my complete recommendation is that there are a few too many birds chirping and twittering on the last few songs. But maybe that is the ultimate in chill music, no music at all but just nature sounds.