SIMON LLEWELYN EVANS - Keeper

Naitauba, Fiji. In the morning light, a butterfly settles on a hibiscus leaf. All it takes is a finger stretched out to touch it. And a moment's pause to contemplate that instant as a revelation.

For Simon Llewelyn Evans, the island of Naitauba is no ordinary place: it's the tropical retreat where his life was transformed, overwhelmed by beauty, through his encounter with a teacher named Adi Da Samraj. The new EP from the Australian songwriter, "Keeper", carries the rarefied glow of those untouched horizons, while also holding the intimacy of a nocturnal monologue — the gaze of someone perceiving the world as never before.

The acoustic bareness of the songs harks back directly to the atmospheres of Evans's debut, "Draw Mountains There": the same lightness of touch that made him a standout on the first volume of the OndaDrops project.

Alongside him, the discreet guitar accompaniment of Aaron Nakagawa surfaces in a couple of tracks — the same collaborator with whom Evans made the 2010 album "Collaborations". It's no surprise, then, that among Evans's listening favourites are names like Elliott Smith, Nick Drake and Eric Bachmann.

Just a caress of strings, in the opening "In Light", is enough to sketch the meaning of a love fulfilled within the mystery of its own destiny: “In his light, by his grace/ In his blessing, on your face/ In his glance, from those eyes/ And in his dance, with you tonight”. The spare notes of "Blessed" anticipate a track destined for Evans's next album, giving direct voice to the words of Adi Da Samraj.

Words in which the breath of the wind transfigures into a sigh of anticipation, a dance capable of purifying humanity. And it's also to the figure of Adi Da, who passed away in 2008, that "Guide" is dedicated: "when I sing about my encounter with him I feel vulnerable, I can't hide," Evans explains. "That's the gift I'd like to offer through my songs."

The secret, Evans whispers in "Guide", is to open the door to grace when it comes knocking on life. Because grace is like a fire capable of regenerating the heart: "you have to let it burn, throw everything into it, to overcome your own selfishness and surrender to the divine."

An echo of harmonica, Aaron Nakagawa's silvery embroidery, the answering vocal of Caroline Lindsay: nothing more is needed, in the farewell of "To Shine", to light up the night. "I pull in the stones to keep the fire going/ And I throw it all in, so I can begin to shine".

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22/10/2012