ANNE GARNER - Dear Unknown

For an artist who has explored every possible shade of melancholy and intimate suffering, it would be easy to box her into a stylistic niche and fall prey to potential clichés. Fortunately, none of that happens with Anne Garner, especially now that the English musician has given worthy follow-up to the little gem that was 2018's "Lost Play", an album about the emotional peculiarities of infancy and childhood that deserves to be rediscovered by anyone who never had the chance to appreciate its beauty.

The sixth album by Anne Garner, "Dear Unknown", picks up the threads of the dreamy, ethereal dream-pop of its predecessor, leaving its poetics untouched, never brushed by self-pity or redundancy.

To the emotional fragility of the compositions, the author pairs a masterful command of the underlying sonic material. The songwriting is powerful, vigorous yet essential, melodically noble; even the most overwhelming and emotionally empathetic pop harmonies are often savored slowly ("Dust Devil", a track also available in a splendid remix by Ukrainian musician Mike Lazarev).

"Dear Unknown" is a record that evolves like a single body, a hybrid mini-symphony waving dream-folk and neoclassical banners. Anne Garner's voice and music have the strength to transport the listener elsewhere, to a world made of memories, lost fragrances, faith in the future and untainted feelings, at times settled on a torch song melody led astray by the seductive sound of a flute ("Besides").

The bittersweet, solitary flavor of these eight sonic fragments is never excessive; there is no possible habituation to Anne Garner's music, even when the author gives up the caress of singing ("Golden Arrow"), or when everything seems pleasantly predictable (the mystical title track, rich in reverb), and even when a veil of suffering and piercing melancholy takes hold of sounds and voices to the point of potential emotional surrender ("Surrender").

Two episodes are decidedly out of line, though not musically brash: the almost romantic and radiant "This Is Freedom" and the intense "Alma", whose harmonic and lyrical versatility carries the author's most painful and personal account: the death of a family member.

"Dear Unknown" confirms all the suggestions Anne Garner has offered since her distant 2005 debut: an ambient-dream-pop that offers sincere comfort to loneliness while satisfying that desire for diversity and escape from the mainstream that makes our relationship with art noble and vital.

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02/05/2022