Brilliantly quirky, original second LP (after 2023’s Big Tear) of experimental folk pop by the Amsterdam artist, who has the free spirited musical adventurousness reminiscent of Tune-Yards’ Merrill Garbus and Fiona Apple in this clever, playful, stop-start work with oodles of vocal loops and layering, electronica and unusual field recordings across themes of freedom and restlessness. Mixing live instruments and band playing, there are also samples from locations including New York and Koyasan. Co-produced the LP with Youniss Ahamad, it’s an album backed with musical surprises and inventiveness, with from the fabulous opener Too Good To Go’s whoops and chirps, rhythmic intricacies and general stream of consciousness joie de vivre (“I didn’t know dancing / Could feel as good as it does”), the slow, intriguing build, gentle build of Pirate, about an endless sea voyage of escape, with delicious choir singing and flute; Jewelry’s rich choral harmonies, varied instrumentation, and bird sounds; the delicate finger-picked ballad Morning Star; the hovering, meandering restlessness of Fish with stirrings of brass, woodwind and whale song, the slow, melodic, meditative piano of Empty Hand, the exotic chanting, flute and eastern flavour of Restlessness, or Red Coat with its lively echoing voice loops and percussive syncopations of internal dialogue of creativity, declaring like a creature feeling free and alive: “I can be who-ever I wanna / Be be be be be be be be be.” It finishes with a more conventional, simple, sweet, acoustic love song to being alive - Hope Song, (“Hope, are you here? / I need to be near you / In any form / A song, a bird, some light/ I need you tonight) rounding off an album of wonderfully refreshing, uplifting, eccentric vitality. Self-released.
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