LADY SPACE - Long Lost In A Twilight Head

This hidden gem comes from Sweden, unveiled in 2010 by the British home made label Reverb Worship, which with its fifty-copy editions of works by underground artists has earned a reputation as a respected point of reference, especially for devotees of psych-folk and drone music tirelessly on the hunt for new names and new sensations (just think, among many others, of Kwannon and the young Japanese artist Muffin).

This time around it's a trio from Gävle, hometown of the multifaceted David Wenngren, though they're working in entirely different sonic territory, as their very line-up suggests. The interests of Andreas Spåls, Leif Olsson and Jocke Claesson are in fact far removed from modern explorations of post-classical minimalism, looking instead to the mysterious allure of a remote past, both stylistically and instrumentally: guitars, bass, organ and mandolin are the tools of the trade for these three Swedish musicians, who worked long and hard to put together this debut with the evocative title "Long Lost In A Twilight Head".

Suspended between folk mysticism, crystalline fingerpicking, crisp melodies and fragments of simple, dreamlike psychedelia, the album gathers twelve tracks rooted in the British folk tradition – the "classic" tradition of Pentangle and Fairport Convention, reaching as far back as the Renaissance bards – while at the same time leaning toward more contemporary variations, whether in a slow-folk vein or in the murky, lo-fi evocations of drone-folk.

If the Barrett-esque acidity that frames the opening "Seal" — and which will linger latently in the organ notes for much of the record — might suggest just another psych-folk album among many, the way the tracks unfold reveals a versatility handled with a precious melodic touch, able to shift with great spontaneity from shadowy atmospheres to limpid acoustic textures, from ritualistic hints to softly enchanting vocal dialogues. Just think of the flutes that cloak the Espers-like wonder "Inscapes" in a dusty patina, the bucolic intimacy of "Disintegration", the insistent left-hand picking of "Tomorrow's Blood" and the dreamy picking of the quiet "Wrap Yourself In Fire". Not to mention the pleasantly disorienting variations running through the barely three-minute delight "Other Side", in which the folk candour of Neil Halstead coexists with the isolationism of Mat Sweet in a piece that could almost have been written and sung by Rick Alverson back in his Drunk days. Echoes of the Boduf Songs project can also be found in the opening humming of "Never Love Unless…", whose ghostly presence is nonetheless soon dispelled by a metamorphosis into something lighter, with a vocal interplay heading in the surprising direction of Simon & Garfunkel. And it seems almost unbelievable that behind a track of such modern vitality lies, in fact, an English Renaissance poem by Thomas Campion, which, much like the two enchanted minutes of "The Old Church Tower" (which sets to music a poem by Emily Jane Brontë), testifies to the Swedish trio's all-round interest in British music and culture.

And perhaps it's no coincidence that an album like "Long Lost In A Twilight Head", made by non-English artists, stands out as one of the finest recent takes on a dark, timeless brand of folk, one rooted in age-old tales of ghosts, curses and betrayals. In all likelihood, the record's inevitably limited pressing will keep Lady Space from breaking out of cult status, a fate shared with other artists working in similar territory (from Nick Grey to Jess Poe); nevertheless, the meticulous sonic craftsmanship underpinning this debut can only be welcomed as the start of a journey still wrapped in mystery and magic, but one that already shows every potential to deliver real satisfaction.

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24/12/2010