I love it when my two worlds collide, those worlds being music and history. Music might be how I pay the bills, but history is my real passion, particularly ancient and prehistoric eras, where there is more often speculation than fact, and therefore room for everyone to have a pet theory about or a new take on such times. (I’m not talking conspiracy theory, just that there are a lot of blanks to fill in, lots of wiggle room to present new ideas.)
“Amarna Letters” brings us a tale from a most interesting chapter in the ancient annals: that of the strange and enigmatic Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten, who revolutionized the country’s religious system by replacing its myriad gods with one abstract deity. (I could go on, I won’t, this is a music review, but do read up on this.)
And if this is a song retelling the past for a present-day audience, the music neatly reflects this: a blend of ambient, subdued popscapes that seem to drift towards us from those distant times; synths gently swirl, saxophones seductively glide, digital beats provide the energy. As all of this works its sonic magic around us, we end up cocooned in a soundscape with one foot in the present and the other in the distant days of the Eighteenth dynasty.
As a piece of music, it makes for a beguiling and evocative soundtrack to such deeper, more investigative thoughts, music to think about the bigger picture, to muse on long-forgotten (yet significant) historical characters, a meditative sound that helps connect dots and shrink time. Glorious and transportative stuff.
I was going to expand on the theory that Akhenaten is the template for the biblical Moses, but no one wants 12,000 words on such speculation, do they? Do they…?
