These recordings have been made on January 9 and 10, 2016 at National Sawdust, Brooklyn, New York for Prototype Festival, a project by Beth Morrison Projects and HERE.

Review in the New York Times:

DEZ MONA’S ‘SÁGA,’ ACOUSTIC TIME TRAVEL IN A SONG CYCLE ABOUT ROOTS

FOR DECADES POP MUSIC HAS LOOKED TO GLOBAL INFLUENCES TO ENRICH ITS SOUND. BUT A FEW YEARS AGO THE BELGIAN BAND DEZ MONA, WHICH HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN KNOWN FOR ITS THEATRICAL JAZZ-TINGED GLAM ROCK, SOUGHT INSPIRATION FROM A LARGELY UNCHARTED CONTINENT: THE DISTANT PAST. ON SATURDAY EVENING THE GROUP PRESENTED THE FRUITS OF THAT EXPEDITION, “SÁGA,” AT NATIONAL SAWDUST IN WILLIAMSBURG AS PART OF THIS WINTER’S PROTOTYPE FESTIVAL. FOR THIS THEATRICAL SONG CYCLE ABOUT ROOTS AND LONGING, DEZ MONA TEAMED UP WITH THE BELGIAN ENSEMBLE BAROQUE ORCHESTRATION X, A GROUP DEDICATED TO PERFORMING NEW MUSIC ON PERIOD INSTRUMENTS LIKE THE HARPSICHORD, THEORBO AND VIOLA DA GAMBA. THE RESULT WAS AN EVENING OF UNFAILINGLY GORGEOUS MUSIC THAT FELT EXOTIC AND FAMILIAR AT ONCE. THE BAND’S LEAD SINGER, GREGORY FRATEUR, CUTS AN ENIGMATIC FIGURE. HIS CHAMELEONIC VOICE SEEMS TO SPAN A FULL THREE OCTAVES AND IS HIGHLY, SOMETIMES UNCOMFORTABLY, CHARGED WITH EMOTION. BUT FOR ALL THE SELF-FLAYING VULNERABILITY OF HIS PERFORMANCE, HE MAINTAINS AN AURA OF ALOOFNESS, WITH EYES CLOSED EXCEPT FOR BRIEF MOMENTS OF DIRECT COMMUNICATION WITH HIS BAND MEMBERS. MR. FRATEUR APPARENTLY BASED THE ENGLISH SONG TEXTS ON ICELANDIC MYTH, BUT THEY WERE HARD TO MAKE OUT. THE SNIPPETS THAT I CAUGHT — “THESE ARE THE TIMES OF OUR LIVES,” “WE’RE BREATHING AIR THAT’S BEEN HERE FOR A WHILE” — RESEMBLED UNREMARKABLE POP LYRICS. WHAT WAS REMARKABLE WERE THE MUSICAL ARRANGEMENTS, WHICH MR. FRATEUR FASHIONED WITH THE BASSIST NICOLAS ROMBOUTS, THE ACCORDIONIST ROEL VAN CAMP AND B.O.X’S THEORBIST, PIETER THEUNS. FROM THE OPENING NUMBER, THE BLEND OF NEW AND OLD INSTRUMENTS WAS DELICIOUSLY DISORIENTING: AN ELECTRIC GUITAR NESTLED GENTLY INSIDE A DELICATE SOUND TAPESTRY WOVEN BY A HARP, THEORBO AND VIOLA DA GAMBA; A DELICATE ACCORDION LINE JOINED IN, APPEARING PERFECTLY AT HOME. EACH SONG HAD ITS OWN TEXTURE: SOME GREW OUT OF A DRONE, OTHERS OUT OF GENTLY UNDULATING ARPEGGIOS; ANOTHER WAS PUSHED ALONG BY CRISP RHYTHMIC OSTINATOS PUNCHED OUT ON THE HARPSICHORD. TUBULAR BELLS AND A BASS DRUM ADDED A RITUALISTIC DIMENSION TO A COUPLE OF THE SONGS, BUT ON THE WHOLE, PATHOS WAS IN SHORT SUPPLY. AT THE END OF THE DAY THIS WAS POP MUSIC, CLASSY, SENSUAL, EXQUISITELY ARTFUL AND UNMISTAKABLY NEW.

CORINNA DA FONSECA-WOLLHEIMJAN
JANUARY 10, 2016 FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES