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aurora (mada002)        if only a sweet surrender to the nights to come be true (mada001) REVIEWS FOR SWEET SURRENDER LOGO MAGAZINE Bruce Cawdron and Beckie Foon obviously can't get enough. Not content with their roles in the guitar-driven Godspeed You! Black Emperor, A Silver Mt. Zion and Set Fire To Flames, they collaborate on this first release as Esmerine with the intent of exploring similar territories to the various Godspeed splinters while leaving the guitars in their flight cases. Subsequently, 'If Only…' is built around minimal, chiming percussion and cello lines, bringing melody to the fore and allowing these eight pieces to drift by as clouds in a dreamscape. The hooks are in the mind of the listener, none of these pieces impose themselves, requiring you to unplug the telly and close your eyes. To do so is to enter a world of technicolour beauty, untroubled by war and politics. In short, Esmerine are the perfect antidote for our times. Gillian Nash

THE WIRE Issue 234 (august 2003) Comprising Bruce Cawdron and Beckie Foon, the duo Esmerine are an offshoot of the extended Godspeed You! Black Emperor family. Mostly built on cello and tuned percussion, their debut album sidesteps the parent group's apocalyptic soundtracks for something that is wide-reaching in scale yet intimate in expression. The cello adopts and almost bluesy tone in some instances, as they work through moods from mournful to frantic. Their instrumentals range from hesitant droplets of noise to swathes of melody. Through sometimes fragmentary in nature, the music can also build into formidable blocks of sound. Without recourse to high levels of volume, Esmerine direct their loose streams of music into an unstoppable flow.

OTHER MUSIC Featuring Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Bruce Cawdron and A Silver Mt. Zion's Beckie Foon, Esmerine is a spacial chamber rock/neo-classical ensemble that revolves around strings and mostly percussive instruments. Sparse arrangements breathe through cello and violin interludes, as drums, marimba, piano, and ambient textures hover and pulse underneath slow, dynamic builds. The instrumental arrangements are more minimal than the Rachel's but just as focused on mood and atmosphere; the music is quiet and mesmerizing and always full of emotional tension. By track four, "Leaving No Room for Fear," Cawdron's drums suddenly climax into a propulsive beat that pushes the strings into an eerie frenzy. Throughout the album, these ascensions are slow to come and quickly decline back to the hush where it began, but by the end you're left breathless.[GH]

SOIT DIT EN PASSANT Le quatrième jour Le premier jour, Dieu créa une Constellation. Le deuxième jour, Godspeed you! black emperor naquit. Le troisième jour, A silver Mt Zion (ASMZ) s'amusa à mettre des claques. Le quatrième, Esmerine mit tout le monde d'accord. Encore, diront les détracteurs, une sous formation de Godspeed!! Ecoutez les amis, j'y peux rien si ça me touche et si j'ai envie d'en parler. Bon, donc voici Esmerine, duo composé de Beckie Foon (Set Fire To Flames, ASMZ) et de Bruce Cawdron (GY!BE, Set Fire to Flames). A ma droite un violoncelle, à ma gauche une batterie, ou, pour être plus exact, des percussions. Out les guitares, Out. Bon, et puis de temps en temps, des potes de Constellation offrent leurs petites contributions, par exemple Efrim Menuck (GY!BE, etc…) à l'harmonium et Thierry Amar (GY!BE, etc…) à la contrebasse et à la basse. Au début, je tendais un peu le dos, j'avais peur du déjà entendu ailleurs. Et bien non mesdames messieurs. D'accord, il y a inévitablement une forte accointance spirituelle avec tous les groupes de l'ensemble du label Constellation et de tout ce qui gravite autour. Esmerine prend le temps de placer son décor, de mettre à nu ses tourmentes intérieures pour mieux les chasser. Le premier morceau, "Red Fire Farm", évoque un générique de début de film. Comme si on survolait une ville, comme si on survolait une vie. On voit, sans le savoir encore, les personnages qui nous marqueront une fois le film fini. Des personnages incarnés magnifiquement par les instruments, jamais trop plaintifs, toujours sincères, jamais caricaturaux. Du feu, de la poussière, et des envolées d'abord impalpables, puis trop puissantes pour qu'on les ignore. "There were no footprints" met en lumière la beauté du violoncelle, tantôt peu loquace, tantôt plus volubile. On pense au Rachels et à Dakota Suite, mais ici, les morceaux prennent une dimension toute autre. On se sent pris, même si on était réticent, même si on dit souvent: "on m'y reprendra pas!". Les morceaux sont étirés, mais nul ennui, nul moment de doute, nul moment de fléchissement. Non, c'est même dans la longueur que chacun des titres prend sa signification. Dans un bref interlude, Luna Park, on assiste à une expérience bruitiste rappelant Set Fire to Flames: grincements de portes ou de balançoires, servant de jonction entre deux morceaux invitant à l'abandon: "sweet surrender be true" et "the marvellous engine of resistance". De sommets en sommets, le violoncelle nous transporte, la batterie et les marimbas, nous font comme entrer en lévitation. Esmerine mettra tout le monde d'accord, je vous assure. C'est simple, c'est émouvant, c'est beau, c'est magique, c'est sublime, c'est à vous de jouer, en attendant le cinquième jour.Highly Highly Recommanded. Quentin Dève

Chronique CD Jean-François RIOUX Quartier Libre sur le Web Esmerine est un duo formé de Bruce Cawdron et de Beckie Foon (Godspeed You Black Emperor, A Silver Mt. Zion, Set Fire To Flame). Le projet comprend batterie, percussion, violoncelle et marimba, qui sont tous très bien exploités dans ce projet minimaliste. Musicalement, Esmerine se situe quelque part entre Hanged Up (Montréal) et Alles Wie Gross (Allemagne), c'est-à-dire qu'ils possèdent une base expérimentale et mélodique tout comme ces formations. Les expérimentations d'Esmerine ne sont pas de longues platitudes interminables, mais de beaux morceaux d'ambiance quelques peu mélancoliques. Le violoncelle est l'instrument qui se démarque le plus de ce petit orchestre, avec des répétitions et des entrelacements pratiquement étourdissants, le tout d'un calme inquiétant. L'élément intéressant de ce duo est qu'il est imprévisible, contrairement aux autres groupes de ces musiciens montréalais. Cependant, comme le veut la tradition de cette clique de musiciens, on adopte des titres interminables. Huit titres pour une durée de cinquante minutes. Cette belle musique est disponible dans un empaquetage fabriqué à la main, d'une rare beauté. Un produit de bonne qualité qui ne vous coûtera pas les yeux de la tête en importation, car il est disponible grâce aux bons soins d'Esmerine au Canada plutôt que Resonant. Esmerine est de loin un des projets les plus intéressants à venir des membres de Godspeed You Black Emperor.

ALL MUSIC GUIDE David Jeffries A French female name meaning quiet and sensitive, Esmerine is a fitting moniker for the overall sound of one of the many Godspeed You Black Emperor! splinter groups. Guitars have been left in their cases for If Only a Sweet Surrender to the Nights to Come be True, a sublime chamber rock album that brings Rachel's or Wim Mertens to mind. Cello, marimba, and drums supply most of sounds here, but good luck trying to figure out who does what since the liner notes are in unreadable calligraphy. The three opening tracks are serene, melancholic, and well-composed, avoiding the quiet-loud-quiet or builds-to-crescendo device. "Where There Is No Love There Is No Justice" is a surprise with drumming driving the rest of the group in the same way most rock drummers set the pace. "Sweet Surrender Be True" sounds like a team-up between the Kronos Quartet and Harold Budd, right down to the echoing in cistern piano. "Luna Park" is the only track approaching a dud: a minute and a half of what sounds like porch doors in need of a good shot of oil far in the distance. Then the excellent drumming is back for "The Marvelous Engines of Resistance," an upbeat whirling-dervish closer. Hopefully, Esmerine won't get lost in shuffle of Montreal art-rockers; their debut is a great record, hip scene or not.

CYCLIC DEFROST Sebastian Chan The Godspeed You Black Emperor nexus must be one of the most productive around at the moment. There are so many side projects each with their own variation on a core of themes of isolation, alienation and melancholy. Esmerine is the least wordy of the side projects, and is a duo of Bruce Cawdron and Beckie Foon who are also part of Set Fire To Flames and A Silver Mt Zion. Pretty much stripped back to cello and marimba with minimal percussion, the Esmerine project has much more in common with minimalist modern classical music than art-rock. All eight tracks carry a certain sadness, a soundtracked melancholy, that makes this a beautiful and contemplative listening experience, and further proof that Godspeed’s side projects manage to be both quantity and quality.

KERRANG! issue 963 Tom Bryant Godspeed you! black emperor have been responsible for some of the most elusively atmospheric, stratospherically magnificent and - gasp - punk soundscapes to emerge since the desert splendour of Ennio Morricone. As vital to that sound were the the expansive, swelling strings they employed. Esmerine is the side-project of that string section [sic] and none of that majesty has evaporated, despite the removal of guitars from the equation. 'If Only...' is as elaborate (and lengthy) as its title suggests, a cello drawing isolated melodies from bleak depths of despair. This is a subtle re-evaluation of modern culture, punctuated by drums and melodic percussion building frantic and evil frenzies, notably on 'When There Is No Love There Is No Justice'. Glorious.

PITCHFORK Nathan Humpal The first time I saw Godspeed You Black Emperor!, the stage they were playing on was about as big as my apartment kitchen. Shoving nine shaggy, disheveled Canadians into a tight corner along with cellos, dulcimers, glockenspiels, and whatever-the-hell-else strikes me as somewhat inhumane but the physical proximity of the musicians seems a completely appropriate manifestation of what has become the typical GYBE sound. The music begins calmly and comfortably, droning and relaxed, as the musicians attempt to adjust themselves, but before long, the inevitable tension arises: Norsola steps on Sophie's foot, Dave ashes in Efrim's hair, Mauro elbows Roger, the projector shines into Aidan's eyes, and eventually the sound grows to a cacophonous slow riot. You'd think that the essentially two-person line-up behind Esmerine would then contribute to a more relaxed and meditative mood. Consisting mainly of A Silver Mt. Zion and Set Fire to Flames' Becky Foon on cello and Godspeed's Bruce Cawdron on sundry percussion, Esmerine's minimal personnel should have much more breathing space, and hence, arrive at a less stressed sound. Not so: Their debut record is a mixed bag of the contemplative and the aggressive, as the two members seem to latch onto that claustrophobic Godspeed frustration, possibly purely by force of habit. A xylophone opens the record's leadoff track, "Red Fire Farm", with strings and militaristic drumming following close behind, building, building, and then slowly exhaling as the track returns to a crawl. So it's typically Godspeed-esque, save one important thing: In stark contrast to GYBE's fiery 22-minute suites, Esmerine practice remarkable efficiency: The track reaches its climactic frenzy in a taut 4? minutes-- and without sacrificing any of its tension or release. Of course, while this is certainly a functional start to the record, it's hardly spectacular, and even less so in comparison to its follow-up, "There Were No Footprints in the Dust Behind Them". "Footprints" exhibits a much more effective use of the elements available to the two leaders: Here, strings take the forefront, and, given plenty of room by underlying unobtrusive percussion, are allowed to set the song's pace. This provides them the space necessary to explore the range of their pitch and tempo, and to shake the room, drone at midrange, and then shriek out excitedly, all within the span of a few concise moments. Though Esmerine hardly exercise the succinctness of the opening song here, the unexpected dynamic range of "Footprints" makes its 12 minutes seem a perfect length. These two tracks represent how the rest of the album can generally be categorized: a) typically Montreal structured crescendos, or b) exploratory contemplations. What's interesting is that these two elements balance each other out, neither allowing the album to become an exercise in tension sustenance (a la Yanqui UXO), or to be written off as obnoxious, rambling tedium (Set Fire to Flames' Telegraphs in Negative). While the crescendos are allowed ample time to brood, the meditations are never shown a level of hospitality that could encourage them to overstay their welcome. Still, it might have been nice if the duo had taken better advantage of their opportunity for genuine exploration.

COMES WITH A SMILE Ian Fletcher Featuring two members of Montreal’s post-rock posse Godspeed You Black Emperor! – who also contribute to A Silver Mount Zion and Set Fire To Flames – Esmerine re-energise a distinctive sound that has become diluted by too many side-projects endlessly raking over too few ideas. By removing all traces of guitar from their music, Bruce Cawdron and Beckie Foon are left with only drums, cello and marimba to contend with. Yet in stripping their options to a bare minimum, they’ve – at least partially, if not always completely – stumbled across some of the elements that made their scene so enticing in the first place. Gone are the crashing, crushing finales. Forgotten also are the spoken word segments predicting an end to the world. Abandoned are words entirely in fact. Concentrating instead on the funeral end of GYBE!’s spectrum, Esmerine veer far closer to classical than rock, with several of these eight windswept tracks lasting over the ten minute mark. A large portion of the time, this music is extremely quiet, with a resigned grace that only twice is disturbed from its mournful slumber. ‘Where There Is No Love, There Is No Justice’ rattles with more bruising intentions, as does epic closer ‘The Marvellous Engines Of Resistance’, yet at all other times, this is eerily intriguing, like unidentified noises outside your bedroom window in the dead of night. The cover artwork – depicting waves crashing against a disused, decaying pier – perfectly previews what lies within. You’re never totally sure what’s keeping you here, yet it’s tough to prise yourself away.

BRAINWASHED Rob Devlin Esmerine are being called a gy!be off-shoot as the core members — Bruce Cawdron and Beckie Foon #151; have played on various releases related to the Montreal collective. At the same time that the label gets them a certain amount of attention, I think it belittles the power of their music at the same time, as this is not just a plaything to occupy some time while the members wait for a new gy!be or Silver Mt. Zion record. Through very simple means, Esmerine have concocted one of the most moving records I've heard, mostly using simple percussion and cello with some guest musicians to round out some of the compositions. First, there is beauty in the music itself, as the cello has the ability to extract tears from even the staunchest individual. Next, the perussion is mostly marimba or light drumming, which keeps a nice pace, but also cuts the more overbearing moments of the strings with a slightly lighter tone. Mostly, though, the compositions themselves are breathtaking, with moments of pure heartrending glory. There are moments of bombast that hint at some heavy firepower, but Esmerine mostly lock it away; like offering a glance at the weapon, knowing there's a larger psychological impact than brandishing it every five minutes. "Red Fire Alarm" starts off quiet, then builds to a boisterous tete-a-tete between all instruments. Eventually, the song lies down for a nap, slowly fading off into a deep sleep. The epic journey of the second track may turn some off, but the interplay of the strings with the very quiet drone behind them is quite stirring. Elsewhere, there is the lighter feel of "Tungsten" and the experimentation of "Luna Park" and "The Marvellous Engines of Resistance" to offer a smattering of styles with equally pleasing results. As the album finally nears its end, the true demons finally come out, and it's worth every measure. A sound debut, and much more than some of the buzz words make it out to be.