Hatikvah - Synchronicity

HATIKVAH - SYNCHRONICITY

Soma

The use of vocals in electronic dance music has always been a touchy, almost controversial subject. Lyrics humanize the beats; sometimes they create a sort of a pop sensibility in the face of mechanical rhythms. Elsewhere, they can emphasize hypnotic effect or highlight a singular emotion. But at worse, they can distract the listener and obscure fine details in a track. This is unfortunately the case for most of Hatikvah’s Synchronicity, unless one can truly submit to the meditative message of ‘hope’ that the artists vocalize over its pleasantly smooth rhythms.

Hatikvah is a project by two German producers, Florian Schirmacher and Helmut Ebritsch. The duo have released a few records over the past three years; Synchronicity is their debut full-length effort, released on Soma Quality Recordings. By checking the album’s preview page, one can get a pretty good idea of what Hatikvah, which itself is the Hebrew word translating to ‘hope’, are trying to do. “If you listen to the language of the soul,” the two write, “You might elevate your spirits.” Synchronicity encourages the “mental/mindful dimension” of music listening, but Schirmacher’s vocals make it rather difficult to keep mindful for the lengthy duration—10 tracks over more than 70 minutes—of the album.

“There’s no emotion, it’s an ongoing development,” Schirmacher says at the beginning of album-opener “Big Mind”, and we enter a warm but barren soundscape of soft bass growls and subtle chords. “Concentrating, tightening up,” the lyrics continue… but wait: what exactly are we discussing here? The track plods on steadily, with slowly swirling synths and some dubbed- out effects, and it’s all quite beautiful, but the lyrics continue on, unfocused, almost rambling and sometimes just plain hard to understand. What is supposed to be a mystical, love-filled introduction to the album turns into a 9-minute un-resolved sketch that should test all but the most dedicated of listeners.

Next up is the eponymous track “Synchronicity”, which features a more overt beat with funky rhythms and gorgeous atmospherics, as well as lyrics that are more direct and thus much more effective: “Use this feeling … Bring synchronicity.” But that direct approach is dropped when the 13-minute “Unforgettable” arrives afterward. It tediously features more abstract bits of soul- searching lyrics and by the time we get into the deep, almost Luomo-like hypnosis of the latter half of the track, one has to wonder if trying to decipher Hatikvah’s message was really worth it in the end.

Most of the other tracks on Synchronicity feature similar lyrical approaches, but it might be the purely instrumental pieces that are the big draw here. The downtempo romance of “Zen” shows how effective Hatikvah can be when they let their simple melodies and deep echoes do the talking. Later, the keyboard solo “Daedelus” adds a bit of loose, warm melancholy in between upbeat rhythmic tracks.

Besides some of the extremely rambling pieces with spoken-word vocals, there are a few tracks that hint at dancefloor potential. “Beneath” is a funky 7-minute long number with soaring vocals from Schirmacher. It works because he actually sings instead of just speaking, and his smooth delivery enhances the overall production instead of detracting from it. “In the Spirit”,“Introduce Me”, and album-closer “Spend Some Time” operate in a similar vein… but there are more abstract spoken-word sections and soulful vocal exclamations that fight for attention.

Perhaps that is the problem with Synchronicity for me: There’s just a bit too much soul. This is all outlined as part of Hatikvah’s plan for the album; it’s just that Schirmacher and Ebritsch inject a few too many words to make this album a truly mindful experience. It’s not really pretentious, and it’s not really cheesy, but it is definitely more confusing than it should be. Synchronicity is full of beautiful production values, but I can’t help but think that my spirits might be a bit more elevated if Hatikvah’s “language of the soul” wasn’t so hard to understand.

Brian Kolada