NATASSA MARE
VOCALIST / SONGWRITER
REVIEWS page 2
«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
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
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
Personally, I perceive the songs by Natassa Mare, as absolutely erotic. Take a look at Kavafis' desire the whole creation in 50 words, Sappho's fragments, Shakespeare's sonnets, Pasolini's or Kanellopoulos' shots… Following such routes, Natassa Mare with her wonderful voice traverses extreme erotic situations. The same high quality characterizes the production of the themes. With one at least amazing- song, the French “Je t'appelle” and all the others moving in the same timeless dream world, Natacha Mare creates an album of fine aesthetics, which also benefits immensely from the perfect recording production. She calls it “a” ... let it be marked with capital “A”...
Fontas Trousas
Editor-in-chief of the Jazz & Jazz magazine
Natassa Mare has tirelessly participated in the music scene with careful moves, a broad spectrum of quests and channels to express herself. In the nine themes of “a”, Natassa Mare creates an album of high aesthetics, with reference to the erotic talk, belonging to easy tempo jazz orchestrations, oriented towards chill-out atmospheres. Ethereal vocals, erotic metaphysical verses with a poetic attitude. All these in the “a”, which gets full marks for its production and final product concerning both sound and expression. It deserves our congratulations, indeed.
Michael Polyhronis
Difono magazine
Her musical influences come from the international music scene and spread from the west side of ethnic to jazz and ambient. Natassa Mare, however, manages to give them a personal identity. This is the most important element in her album, titled “a”, which is the beginning of everything, and, therefore, half of it. The disc is dominated by the virtues of a songwriter who has a clear knowledge of the space she wants to move in and a specific personal position. Through her album, Natassa Mare expresses her position on orchestration (faith in the eminence of improvisation), on performance (the soft innuendo instead of the outgoing “statement”) but also on the verse (free poetry instead of the structured couplet and refrain). The cd creates the sense of a continuous journey, its songs being the different views of the same global scenery. The sense of globalization is intensified by the alternation of the languages. Greek coexists with the English and French verses.
Nikos Moraitis
Echo& Artis magazine
Natassa Mare is known as a performer and creator of rare sensitivity, of a timeless and immutable soul intensity. Being able to surpass conventional borders, she leaves herself free to be inspired and be moved by the various shades of diverse musical idioms, fields, eras, and trends. However, she always succeeds to offer something very personal, very intimate and special. Her concerts in Greece and abroad always attract the public’s attention. Reviewers applaud each of her appearances and they accept with enthusiasm her charming musical proposals. Her latest album, titled “The Embrace” is her collaboration with the famous British guitarist Jason Carter (student of top John Williams and Paco Pena). The sensuously colored voice of the artist, through which with so much generosity she penetrates into the full of love, purity and tenderness fine meanings of her musical paragraphs and words, is unique. Her art is in a perfect combination with the expressive and exciting guitaristic performance of Carter. “The Embrace” is an absolute confessional and intimate musical testimony offering to listeners the most wonderful experience. Natassa Mare proves once again her ability being constantly artistically renewed and exploring new musical horizons and emotional places.
Yes, her album is a truly apocalyptic Embracement of spirit, soul, and senses (Enalia)
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