Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Saybia

Details: Written by: Sebastian Huhn; Published: 27 October 2008

Luxor, Cologne, Germany
26th October 2008
Saybia, Blake

The Danish band SAYBIA was guest at Cologne’s Luxor (former Prime Club). For me it was a premier, but as I only heard good things about them and the samples on their MySpace profile convinced me as well, I was looking forward a great show…

Blake

That Danish band around front woman Mathilde Lunderskov just has released their first EP this autumn. One song off the EP ‘Hey Sister’ was chosen for a feature on the Danish radio talent show “Karriere Kanonen”. Right now the band is working on their first full-length. BLAKE is Mathilde Lunderskov (vocals, piano), Morten Dannisboe Iversen (drums), Hannibal Horn (guitar), Mille Schütten (keyboards) and Michael Houborg (bass). http://www.myspace.com/blakedk

Music & Performance
Lately we had a couple of occasions where we hadn’t heard anything of the support band before or didn’t know there was one at all. We were lucky in both cases so far but BLAKE from DENMARK must be called an extraordinary appearance among those. First they had a real eye-turner with singer/guitarist Mathilde, who casually took on the role of the piano player as well; and then this woman with the delicate hands has a voice leaving you with your mouth open, being seductive, strong and sometimes fragile it’s soaring over compositions having both an indie vibe and jazz or soul-like atmosphere with a constant melancholy. However, in spite of the audience probably not knowing the band before, they provided the band with a lot of well-deserved applause, during and even more after the performance. A band to keep in mind

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 7.5 / 10

Saybia

The Danish band formed in 1993. After some EPs had been released, many of them sold at concerts, the band released their debut ‘The Second You Sleep’ which went straight to #1 in their home country, followed by a 18 month tour after which rumours came up, the band was burned-out and the would split-up, but creativity seemed to have come back to the band; if they ever lost it, and in September 2004, the second album ‘These Are The Days’ sees the light of day. The band presents the album on an extensive tour throughout Europe, with excursions to Japan and China. In September 2006, the band plays a few concerts in their home country as well as in the Netherlands and Switzerland, bringing a couple of new songs. The third album ‘Eyes on the Highway’ then hit the store shelves in August 2007. SAYBIA is Søren Huss (vocals, lyrics, guitar), Sebastian Sandstrøm (guitar), Jess Jensen (keyboard) Jeppe Knudsen (bass) and Palle Sørensen (drums). http://www.saybia.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/saybia

Music & Performance
Yes, you can connect the music of this Danish band to the works of COLDPLAY and the like, but you shouldn’t make the mistake and see them as imitators of a well-known recipe as they’ve partly shown a very strong urge for experimentation and expanding their songs to instrumental epics, at least they did yesterday. The gig started a “little” later than planned much to the dislikes of the audience, already getting impatient - justifiably. But all was forgotten when they finally showed up and started with their part melancholic and part rocking tunes whereas the melancholy has the higher weight amongst them and this melancholy, penetrating both the more rocking and the calmer ones, carried by Søren’s brilliant vocals flooded the venue and wielded a strange influence on many people that evening.

It was like drifting off into another world; you felt carried away by such songs like ‘Haunted House on the Hill’ with which they presented a talent to transport great emotions without getting cheesy like many others do nowadays. Like I mentioned before, some of the songs dwindled into kind of a session where you could witness the musical qualities of every single band members. Ever since that I decided that it was time to add another band to my list of which I have to buy a CD some time. That list has grown significantly lately.

Setlist
01. Walk in the Park
02. Bend the Rules
03. The Second you Sleep
04. Soldier
05. Soul United
06. Way out
07. Haunted House on the Hill
08. We almost made it
09.Untitled
10. Worst Case Scenario
11. Brilliant Sky
12. Eyes on the Highway
13. The Day after tomorrow
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14. Guardian Angel
15. On her Behalf
16. I surrender

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 6
Total: 7.8 / 10