Composer, musician, and producer Faten Kanaan uses counterpoint as a narrative tool to create music that is mysterious, smudgy, and deeply melodic. From the repetitive structures of modern minimalism and early music/baroque influences – to more languid textural ebbs and tides, there’s a warmth in her use of synthesizers that gives her work a curiously timeless feel. Composing intuitively, her music creates its own world – one that isn’t easily categorised. Minimal and nuanced, Diary of a Candle is a consoling, melodic suite – with tender woodwinds and richly-layered strings touched by the hazy atmospheres of 1970s/1980s films.
Its understated heart-on sleeve romanticism follows the rhythm of nature: it bends in the breeze, drifts through the air, and settles on the ground. The ambiance is not an escapism, but the re-focusing of a lens through which humans are no longer the protagonists. Instead, a landscape’s intimate details become the central figures.
With the sparseness of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s 1982 album ‘Music for Nine Post Cards’ as a starting-point influence, Faten’s music exudes a wistful yet hopeful sentiment, honouring moments of beauty in the world around us. Some of the album titles are inspired by East-Asian rites and folkloric superstitions, often related to nature.
“I wrote the album while looking out at the garden. I imagined the spirits in plants and in objects watching us at their own pace…even the spirits in rocks and candles and souvenirs in a room. I wonder if they resent or pity us, or if they just can’t be bothered”.
“After 20 years of living in New York I relocated (indefinitely) to Amman, Jordan with my cat. Adapting to a new yet familiar topography has changed my relationship with nature. I notice more of its subtleties while living alongside ancient stones, walking on the steep streets, and having a garden to tend. It’s a daily privilege being able to find calm here, especially when surrounded by the regional suffering so close by.” – Faten Kanaan
All music written performed and mixed by Faten Kanaan
Mastered by Heba Kadry
Photo by Olena Shkoda
Live Date
25 Oct: Renaissance Society – Ida Noyes Hall, Chicaco, IL, US
