Marissa Nadler + Jana Hunter

Disenchantment is the key to everything: Marissa Nadler, musician, poet and painter, manages to turn it into a unique moment of her music and of her artistic expression in general. To tell you about what she's able to give, it would be enough to describe the encounter I had with her on the evening of her Naples show, before the soundcheck, when, intimidated by one of the organizers about how little available she was, I approached slowly, hesitant... She was in front of me, sitting on a narrow bench alone with her guitar and her anxiety, visible in how focused she was on the rehearsal. She wore a long black dress, which set off her pale, diaphanous skin; a sort of white lace shawl offset the black of her long hair, loose over her chest; a pair of black Dutch clogs completed the outfit, giving me the impression of seeing, through her, the perfect embodiment of her melancholy verses, which, more than ever in that moment, seemed to be taking shape.

Nadler proved immediately approachable, signing autographs, posing for souvenir photos but, above all, talking about her published and unpublished work (listen to the superb "Hyacinth", written at the age of 16 and still unreleased). In calm tones she outlined her plans for the future and, while her voice betrayed not the slightest emotion about it, her eyes lit up at times, as if to underline the great passion for everything she has produced and continues to produce (her imminent third album will also be distributed in Italy). The performance, preceded by the pleasant Texan Jana Hunter (another name we'll be hearing about, her "Blank Unstaring Heirs Of Doom" is lovely), was a perfect blend of poetry and bucolic visions, to which clung the melancholy, anxious arpeggios that Nadler skillfully painted. What can I say? The sadness this singer-songwriter is able to evoke during a performance is illuminating: she seems to take the listener by the hand into an autumn afternoon, among bare trees and carpets of leaves yellowed by time...

Her voice is thin, yet capable of shaking you with its power. And yet what she gave us that night from her stool always felt like caresses, singing through almost her entire repertoire bit by bit, capturing the eyes and hearts of the many spectators who turned out thanks to the organization by Glam!group in the splendid hall of the Teatro Tintadirosso. It's just a shame the acoustics weren't the best, despite Marissa repeatedly asking for the microphone volume to be adjusted. Still, songs like "Annabelle Lee", "Fifty Five Falls", "Old Love Haunts Me In The Morning", "Under An Old Umbrella" and "Mayflower May" manage to enchant, and once you've heard them, it's impossible not to admire their author, who, raised on the school of Joan Baez (but don't tell her!) and Joni Mitchell, brings folk to new splendors, covering it with a veil of sadness and unease through the ill-fated stories of the characters brought to life in her songs. This is the art of Marissa Nadler, creator of images out of time and space. We'll be hearing more about her.

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