Reviews BARK HOME

These experimental soundscapes from international outfit Bark – a creative partnership between singer Angeline conaghan and Norwegian keys, drums, electronics expert Terje Evensen – feature sparse dynamics with enterprising samples of white noise and percussive loops, which dominatet the title track and the second track, Exume. Each cut is intriguing, hypnotic and fulfilling. Lyrics in the naturalistic Dream seem to merge effortlessly with the swooping backing. Quality contemporary music-making of an exceptional nature.

Musician Union magazine – UK July

Sehr eigenwilligen, atmospharisch schagen aternative-Pop bieten BARK auf ihrem Album Home (www.barkmusic.com). Die Band um die neuseelandsche sangerin angeline Conaghan spielt sensible songs mit relativ einfachen Electro-beats, aber um so abgefahreneren soundscapes. Auch diese Produktion klingt nach dem sehsuchtigen Trademark-Sound des hohen Nordens Europas. Und wenn dann hier und da ein paar brat- oder Steel-Gitarren durch den Raum schweben, dann ist der orginelle Soundtrack fur den Sommerabendfilm prefekt.

Gitarre & Bass- It

CD Of The Month - Bark

Bark are singer Angeline Conaghan and programmer Terje Evensen. Their album Home is something of a rarity: an LP that defies classification, without sounding as though every song was written by a different person. The definition they give is 'glitch-pop', which covers some of the bases, but there are too many influences here to single them all out — Björk is one of the more obvious ones, but there's a bit of pretty much everything, from polished, glossy pop to downright weird ambient electro, via rock, trip-hop, breakbeat, jazz and God knows what else.

What's really weird, though, is just how much sense the album makes as a whole. I think this is partly down to Angeline's very distinctive singing voice, but Terje has a unique production style and an ear for pleasant surprises, which this album is full of. Just as you're trying to make head or tail of a frankly bizarre, almost abstract intro, you'll be overwhelmed with easy, laid-back guitars and drums of the sort you'd expect to hear on a pop record. Let your guard down, however, and you'll be plunged straight back into Angeline's eerie, disjunct stream of consciousness, set to a backdrop of dark pads, uneasy electro beats and other sounds so odd that I couldn't begin to guess their origin.

Home is intriguing, original and refreshingly different. Good work, Bark.

Sound on sound magazine - Chris Korff

Angeline Conaghan hauntingly erotic vocals lay delicately along side Terje Evensen organic melodies and dark sophisticated beats. Home is in fact so organic and natural you could easily imagine this to be a live performance, growing and changing before you. It is virtually impossible to fence this album into a already established category. Is it a chill out album? Is it Jazz, maybe it's Trance? maybe it's ground breaking. Although Home has a fluid feel to it, each track is individual, and clearly shows the depth of talent these composers have founded together.

The individual merits of each artist is not to be shunned here, as both artist are well established & respected for their solo projects, however in the form of Home their unmistakable genius is clearly amplified. From the slightly soft rock over tones of Skin, the tribal rhythm's of Light, the hypnotic passion of Dare to the coffee shop pop of Talk, Home carries you safety onwards and upwards, without ever being cheesy or overly ' hippy' in it's approach.

Over all Home is an album that would easily sit along side such classics's as Portishead's Dummy & Death in Vegas's Dirge. What we have here is a timeless classic, and an album that every discerning muso should own.

The waiting Room vote this album as 10/10.

Hope Eternal, The Waiting Room. www.errorfm.com