Review Summary: Encouters features some truly wonderful moments throughout and because it’s a coherent album the listeners will only get the full experience if they listen from the beginning to end. Be prepared to be put into a dream like state.
In a genre known for its introspection and contemplating darkness it’s refreshing when bands put a twist on this formula. Listening to Katre’s debut album Encounters you can’t help but think this is a work that encompasses the values of post-rock while pushing the boundaries with their experimentation.
Drawing inspiration from the eastern culture they grew up in, the four piece band from Turkey seamlessly blends post rock/post metal with eastern traditional, folk music. They achieve this by applying the e-bow on electric and fretless guitars and by weaving traditional melodies into their musical compositions.
Those influences are evident in the first track of the album ‘’Underwater World’’ where they have collaborated with the legendary musician and inventor of the first fretless classical guitar, Erkan Ogur. ‘’Underwater World’’ starts off as a dreamy, haunting track before the Turkish folk legend’s stringed instrument evokes a melancholic, heart-wrenching feeling found in an Anatolian folk song.
After the four minute mark the song explodes into a post metal number with guitars getting heavier while the drums bring out insecurity and darkness with every snap of the snare.
‘’Encounters’’ grapples with the theme of existence and is being inspired by the stages that span conception and birth to growth and self-awareness the album is broken down into two chapters- Existing and Existence.
The songs in both chapters are steadily built and composed to escalate at some point with energy starting to build after a slow start.
On notable tracks ‘’It is All New’’ and ‘’Heaviest Leaves’’ they combine serene ambience with more heavy blues-oriented riffs.
The album features some truly wonderful moments throughout and because it’s a coherent album the listeners will only get the full experience if they listen from the beginning to end. Be prepared to be put into a dream like state.
