Spittle Suspended
This is gorgeous and gruff, bittersweet. The vocal of Lucia
Cadotsch is pure and precise and she sings standards like Moon River and
classics like Strange Fruit with that purity of voice, and this is then accompanied
by the tenor saxophone of Otis Sansjo, which can be soft and melodic, like the
beginning of Ain’t Got No, I Got Life, or a series of pulsed screeches/breaths/belches/growls,
or the two poles mixed, and the bass of Petter Eldh which adds layer and layer
of rhythm and percussion, so the voice is constantly reframed by these
sidekicking adornments.
When a familiar melody is begun it seems to be hung in our
aural suspense, like already mentioned Moon River that closes the album, where
it is immediately recognisable, but the sax is bristling in the background like
a lit fuse – the spittle resonating in the pipes ready to burst forth – and the
bass is plucking out the tune in singular notes; but it doesn’t explode. Such a
tease.
It is because we began with Slow Hot Wind and this is a
dynamic start, the voice again beginning simply and sweetly, but there is a
building beat in the rolling sax and tapping bass, and the roll builds to
squeal and just about tear before the vocal is overdubbed to a sweeter harmony;
and then in next Speak Low the saxophone is wailing and the bass is a snare
drum. For a moment.
A distinctive and absorbing listen.
No comments:
Post a Comment