Margaret Maria & Bill Gilliam “PORTALZ” (LP)

Margaret Maria & Bill Gilliam go beyond compare with PORTALZ, which starts with the duo’s combination of prominent cellist/producer and cultural builder’s global reach of Margaret Maria, and Toronto based, UK born, Bill Gilliam. Together they produce a real ambient sort of chamber pop instrumental music with a cinematic quality. This is purely authentic and original music, which I might be mis categorizing, but it reminds me of such genres enough to mention upon discovering them. This can also be the result of Gilliam’s many styles and influences crossing from jazz to electronic, combined with the baroque cello and other brilliant orchestrations of Maria.

BILL GILLIAM: https://www.facebook.com/billgilliam.composer

MARGRET MARIA: https://www.facebook.com/margaret.tobolowska

PORTALZ is a phenomenal adventure through time and space, grounded by the earthly elements of losing love and complicated by co-existing with the reality of inherently out of hand machinery. An album that takes the listener through ten thresholds of such matters without losing the true ears of appreciation for instrumental music in a time where everything is losing authenticity at an alarming rate. Kicking off with the first cut, “Portalz Threshold” they waste no time getting into it from the start, with an intro track to set things up and it goes interestingly well to get the album started.

“Summoning The Enchantress” is a slow burner and where it starts to remind me of chamber pop, with some of the baroque content with lots of soling from Maria. This might not be how they would describe it, but it comes out inclined as such to me, and it’s fascinating to hear as it mesmerizes the senses with meanings only the duo can attest to. This is how PORTALZ plays out in the long run. “Landscape Of Complexing Beauty” is a sophisticated number full of majesty on display with cello and piano swipes all over the place and naturally defined musical beauty in of itself.

“Love Trembling” earns its name as well, and it seems the duo can do no wrong at this point, as they continue to turn out remarkable work track after track on PORTALZ, with the commanding performance of Maria coming on most incredibly strong. The album is mostly live, so it plays just like a performance that way. “Strings Of Ascent” describes itself, and it comes as no surprise after the strings of the previous cut, as this comes off less musical but even more commanding to the listener. “Dissolving Space Time” starts the second half of the disc with a beautiful excursion that leaves you breathless.

“Race Of AI Bots” takes on the subject of the modern machinery chasing itself around like a cat chasing its tail, which might describe it some people just by looking around computers, cell phones and all-consuming apps of the day. The right geeks know what it means but the rest can easily imagine. “Mirrored Complex” is where it gets quite spooky and technical in their playing to the most interesting degree. And the story comes closer to a climax with “Still Stillness” keeping interest before PORTALZ takes you “Beyond The Unknown” to end the journey.

Mark Druery