Singer Tran Thu Ha
Singer Tran Thu Ha (also known as Ha Tran) has just returned on a day in March, bringing with her Finger Rivers . This is her latest studio album after Original eight years ago.
The album was conceived in 2017 with an invitation to record from musician Tran Duc Minh and poet Phan Le Ha, and completed in 2021.
Last year, the album was re-mastered by musician Tran Thanh Phuong and has just been released.
If before, Ha Tran spent 10 years and a lot of energy to produce The Fiery Origin (after Dialogue 06), then from The Origin to Finger Rivers, she made a reverse move, dreaming deeply and completely relaxing in a very free, slow state...
Returning after 8 years, what's new with Ha Tran?
The album includes 13 songs, of which Mong is associated with the singer's MV released in 2021 and Nhung con song ngon tay is the soundtrack in Tran Thanh's recent movie Mai .
The album Finger Rivers takes the audience on a journey through time and space. There, Ha Tran is like a "girl who loves to wear hats and act pretty", "who loves to fly and travel the world".
In that mental space, the girl goes through the days covered in a brown, dusty shirt, imbued with the dreams of life, drifting to the wild lands filled with the chirping sounds of insects, the seasons of flowers full of singing leaves, the crying rivers, the sad fields and the stooped back of the Farmer following the summer ( Brown Dream , The Turn , Last Summer Night ...).
The music is immersed in silence. On the acoustic guitar, the girl sings and slowly and happily savors the remaining crumbs.
Phan Le Ha's poems are rich in musicality, imagery and refined in language, set to music and "polished" by two musicians with the last name Tran, and performed by Ha Tran's voice - a soprano, slender, suggestive and extremely delicate. It is no surprise that Nhung con rieng tay is a beautiful album, even in some corners "too clean".
If you expect Ha Tran to have an "explosion" and destructive power like the Eclipse album , Dialogue 06 ... had done it like many years ago, there would have been no explosion. This time she returned without any secrets.
FINGER RIVERS - HA TRAN ( MAI soundtrack) |
Finger Rivers is a rather gentle album, the music is nothing new or edgy, even a bit light compared to her vocal range and musical thinking. But perhaps as Ha Tran once confided, the fate of this project signals a period of inner transition.
Ha usually makes personal albums when she feels the time is right. It's not without reason that it takes eight years to release something.
Here, it is still pop, jazz, rock, blues... combined with the "unique" voice of Ha Tran. The harmony of two other people (in Premonition , Night of Silver ) if any, also makes the musical space more flavorful and wider.
From "Night of Silver", "You", "Those Finger Rivers "... to "Our Youth", Ha sings and dreams all night "about a certain life I've lived". When the album is finished, somewhere there is a smile of relief and satisfaction.
Musician Tran Duc Minh (left) and Ha Tran in the studio recording the album Finger Rivers - Photo: NGUYEN THANH LAN
Not trendy but not strange
After releasing hit studio albums and shows, creating a musical citadel with her name and entering the diva ranks, "chameleon" Ha Tran is probably somewhat exhausted.
When announcing the project Original (2016), Ha Tran told musician Quoc Trung she would quit singing.
Ha Tran returns with the album Finger Rivers - Photo: NGUYEN THANH LAN
At that time, Ha Tran had nothing to regret and no longer had much attachment because no one else had the need to be better. And whether she wanted to sing better or stop, it was only her.
Ha Tran's feelings in the context of Vietnamese pop music - temporarily taking the period from 2010 to present - may startle someone.
Many artists in her generation "have gone to the other side" of creativity and dedication, not releasing new songs/albums for a long time and just singing old songs.
Meanwhile, a new generation of artists appeared and covered all fronts, along with a different musical aesthetic, very new, trendy but also faded away. Singing differently and listening differently.
A segment of the late Gen X and Gen Y audience is somehow excluded from the contemporary music scene. They miss the music that was meant for them. Who will make music, who will sing for them?
Therefore, when Ha Tran released Finger Rivers or before that Hong Nhung released the album Public Radio ... both became products to "quench" the generation's thirst.
When the movie Mai was released, the soundtrack song "Thread Rivers" conquered many young audiences.
The album of the same name brings Ha Tran back in a way that is not overwhelming, not really trendy but not strange either.
And in that new generation of audiences, there were also people who "got on the bus to the past" to listen to the music of "Miss" Ha Tran, "Miss" Hong Nhung... to live in a world of music that must be heard with the ears instead of seen with the eyes.
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