«The Embrace» has come in the center of all inspiration which is Eros, experienced as the absolute union and at the same time the absolute loss. Natassa Mare sings and recites with the imprint of the human breath. With her voice as a guide, we touch words, which underline aspects such as the fond center of all things, the maternity that penetrates the universe, the uniqueness of each person as he experiences common and diachronic moments but valuable and irreplaceable. The body impressed like a fragment into the album’s photos, it reveals through music and lyrics as the raft of the invisible, a guard of the unreturned moments, a body that is inornate, within in its nakedness, lacking expressions, pretense, motives, and dealings. It is the body of the soul ceaselessly moving in the wave of Eros.

 

Vassiliki Fitoka

Collaborator of the Greek Language Research Center

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The magical musical meeting of Jason Carter, a musician who travels around the world into sounds of different cultures, with Natassa Mare, a profoundly healing voice. We have to “taste” the musicality in the silences of their songs or the profound peace in the pulses of their music in order to experience that “all things are here”. Through his travels in all around the world, the composer becomes intermediator, transmitter, and reconciler of oppositions, which, in any other case, may seem frightening. On the other hand, observing the poetic way of Natassa, the soul takes courage by transforming energy into forms, allowing the creation of new, dynamic forms of energy. Natassa has the ability to unite different kinds of music in one and only vibration. This is the way her voice is made. Her voice senses, reveals and is guided by the musicality of the words. Every moment of the cd is full of human presence. Here’s a dreamy travel or a multicultural experience.

Rea Kalogianni

Scientific collaborator of the A.U.T.H. and the University of Maine in France

Responsible for the International

French-speaking magazine “Synergies” in Greece

 

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Roland Barthes speaks of the “grain of the voice”, of audible seeds that fertilize a given space and create altogether new, distinct, livable spaces. Natassa Mare constitutes a unique rare instance of a voice with such grain that, in its dispersion, creates new, livable spaces. It is a voice that does not trespass on the music, nor does it follow it subserviently; rather, it enters the music like an unintrusive thread, creating the impression of a traveler, wandering through different rooms. This voice honors the relationship between music and prosody; and it honors silences, one of the most crucial factors in the production of space. It is a voice that guides, without commanding. This is what makes “The Embrace” stand out as a record, for it is a dense map of spaces that exist in actuality, or may be created in potentia.

 

Danae Stephanou

Lecturer in historical musicology,

Department of Music Studies, School of Fine Arts,

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

 

 

Natassa Mare is a charismatic as well as a singular singer-songwriter. An artist of high prescriptions, with classical music education, sensitivities, imagination, technique, modesty and all things required for someone to “say” something special through the art he or she proposes. Following the example of international artists in her field, such as Ute Lemper's, she does not hesitate to experiment with and visit various music sites. Having been influenced for many years by different music trends, jazz, ethnic and others, here she is now delivering a personal disc, titled “a”, the extract of her musical quest. Her personal stigma is always present in the songs she presents. The listener accepts the invitation to a journey during which Natassa Mare is the guide with her attractive, sometimes eerie, sometimes immaterial, sometimes ecstatic voice. The words and the meanings of her verses, her sky, her sea, the breaths that live beside her, the silent moments of her thoughts, her dreams and her nights, all these lead us to a musical Ithaca, which is exciting and romantic every minute. A musical Ithaca that comes alive through an intoxicating and inviting song. We hope the songs by wonderful Natassa Mare will soon be heard outside the Greek borders. Her musical horizon is definitely hiding more treasures. We are looking forward to it. [A&N Records 9101].

 

Konstantine Carabelas Sgourdas

Member of the Greek Music and Theater Union of Critics

Member of the critical committee of the International Contests

Vincenzo Bellini and Sigismond Thalberg

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