Amartia has been producing music since mid 1999, this is their third production, released in 06. A fourth title was released earlier this year. They do an interesting mix of musical styles, but all of it makes use of a wonderful combination of musical talent serving to underscore the sounds of vocalist Britta Herzog who is listed as Chant/Claviers. Yea, I know, she doesn’t sound very French, does she, well, she also sings in German so maybe I have that wrong. I e-mailed her but never got anything back so what cha gonna do? The band is listed as being residents of Lille, Nord-Pas-de-Calais but that doesn’t really mean much. Other musicians include Vincent Vercaigne, Nicolas Dubois, Cyril Carrette and Manu Berdin covering the typical range of instruments. However there are at least 4 additional musicians listed so there is clearly a full house involved in the production here. And they put out a truly interesting musical product.

Marionette begins with a trademark sound, a quiet introduction to seduce the listener into a soft, reflective mindset. In Desert, Britta speaks over a desert wind that interacts with a keyboard and a poking guitar, with background voices from a street scene. She quietly and seductively talks to the listener:

As the short intro winds down, we move to a more metal track, with a haunting vocal line that takes us to the Amartia metal. The band moves between styles effortlessly, and the vocalist does the same, using a soft pouting vocal that can quickly evolve into a strong metal tone. At other times, the vocal is near operatic. And lyrically, Britta changes languages with equal ease.

One of the highlights of the CD is Revolution der Marionette, an extended track that showcases the many talents of both the band and the vocalist. It begins with an acoustic guitar and keyboards carrying Britta as her voice is overlaid in a classical style that is almost a 50s croon. She sings:

The second verse takes a slight turn in terms of sound, but a big one in terms of language:

Midway through the song, the entire tone of the song changes, the guitars begin to crash, a symphonic component is added and Britta’s vocals to a 180 degree turn to a harder epic sound, one she is clearly comfortable with. And the lyrics move to English. It’s as dramatic a transformation as I have heard in one song and it works extremely well.

The band uses this ability to transform their sound to good effect throughout the CD. Lost takes the vocals to a Tori Amos sound, with a background to match. Amartia uses a lot of the more traditional sounds, piano and acoustic guitar and that is the background here. And the background musicians are outstanding, even on songs like this where they are understated and serve only to provide minimum accompaniment to a beautiful ballad that features the vocalist.

There are tracks, however, that feature a strong metal approach to the music. Chosen One is a fine example of this direction. Guitars drive the action and the vocals are more intense, more metal in flavor. However, again, it is the ability to take unusual shifts, in this case, in the form of moving between octaves, that serve to make the song truly interesting. Surprends-moi is another that meets this description. Again, Bretta goes multi lingual, this time with a crushing guitar to augment the sound. It’s hard to tell exactly what her native language is, she sounds equally strong in both German and French, but she tends to make a more decisive statement in French. On this track, she sings with a tone that clearly expresses a strong emotion:

The song ends with a quiet piano that seems to close the door to the strong words that preceded it.

Come Back from Heaven is another metal track done in multiple languages. The guitar drives this number and Britta makes her strongest musical statement with the help of some heavy editing. You may not understand the French components but there’s no doubt of the sincerity in the words. Britta can make a statement stick in pretty much any language and she seems to have a lot to say.

Amartia is nothing if not an interesting presentation. The musicians, all of them, are outstanding, the writing reflects a classical approach and is clearly the result of work done by highly trained technical perfectionists. The vocals take the listener in a variety of directions, both in terms of vocal style and language. And the total package has something for pretty much everyone. It will appeal to a wide variety of listeners with a wide variety of interests. . .to say nothing of a wide linguistic capability.

9 / 10