A Course In Miracles

Avitas

Existential electronica suffused with a sensuous occult mystery...

Victoria Wilson-James and Kinan Atassi are Avitas, and they bring with them a well of talent that gives this recording a feeling of maturity and back story that can be all too often missing in this genre.

I have a very bad habit in that I read the sleeve notes of an album before I listen to the music. Avitas provide a mighty tome of sleevenotes, luckily I admire an artist with the balls to put an extended piece of text that takes in Warrior Goddesses, Atlantis, the Ninth Dimension and any number of seraphic cherubs on their albums packaging. The danger is that the hype can be let down by the goods delivered. Not here though, rapturous and uplifting rythm leaps out at you. Victoria has a voice that manages to project the authority and warmth of a mother goddess tinged with the naivety of human frailty. Kinan harnesses the majesty of religious belief enlightened by the awareness of the worlds that lie just on the edge of our perception.

This really is a joyous experience. It promoted a similar state of mind within in me that Lisa Gerard and Dead Can Dance do, but in a more upbeat manner. It might have been because I listened to it on a clear starlit night lying under a tree...

The simplest measure of an albums worth is whether it leaves you wanting more. I definitely want more...

Iain Hazlewood