Ô PARADIS - Serpiente de Luna Serpiente de Sol - CD - 17 tracks - Aorta - 2003

'Serpiente de Luna de Luna Serpiente de Sol' is the third album from Ô Paradis, an excellent Catalonian project guided by Demian. Released on Gerhard's (Allerseelen) label Aorta, the CD comes in a beautiful six-panel digipack featuring some superb graphics by Ricard Recio, which draw immediate attention to the artwork and makes this digipack one of the nicest I have seen for a long time.

This brand new CD features seventeen songs (for a total length of one hour) in the pure Ô Paradis style... subtle arrangements mixing natural, electronic, experimental, traditional elements, Demian's enchanting voice singing in Spanish, choirs, languorous melodies and songs ranging from traditional music to pop... everything that makes Ö Paradis such a unique formation is present on this new album, only with more mastery and maturity than in the past...

This album also includes friendly collaborations: Jürgen Weber (Novy Svet) for the text and the voice on 'Octopus' and Gerhard for his jazzy swing composition (based on a Nietzsche text) titled 'Llama'. Both are very different contributions by nature of course, but both bring something to the album, as they are part of Demian circle of accomplices.... As for the lyrics, Demian lets us appreciate his unique and charismatic voice singing in Spanish, with a reference to Fernando Pessoa on the 'Introduction' title.

Compositions like 'Por Cuidar De Mi, Amor', 'Palabras' or 'Tenerte A Mi Lado', with their characteristic atmosphere full of melancholy and floating impressions are, in my opinion, pure gems... and just ask to be played over and over again...

It is also worth mentioning that the excellent title 'El Astro Rey', initially released last April as a 7" split with Allerseelen, also features on this album and it fits in perfectly with the overall atmosphere...

To resume (with all that this term implies), I will just recall that Demian confined in our pages a few months ago that he 'lives at twenty minutes in car of the bank that separates these two worlds, the sea and the land...' this might explain, in part, the inspired work, the magic and the strange essence that emanate from this 'Serpiente de Luna Serpiente de Sol'...

Highly recommended.

Nathalie F.
Autumn 2003

Contacts:
Ô Paradis: www.o-paradis.com
Aorta: www.geocities.com/ahnstern