PICASTRO – become secret
(CD, monotreme)
Folk music covers a wide range
of musical advantage points and views these days. From collective freak folk
and experimental noise songwriting to the most traditional bluegrass
picking. I am tempted to write that it covers an epic stretch of prairie and
mountains, but that metaphor is too bland to draw it out in the face of
Picastro and their seriousness regarding music. But also the tranquility and
melancholy of the songs demands a more serious description. And with these
respects they also carve out a niche of their own in the wide field that is
folk music today.
Liz Hysen, the singer and main
mind behind Picastro, seems to have a penchant for abrasive chords on the
piano and dramatic melancholy rarely found. Especially towards the end
“become secret” turns more from proper songwriting and singing to a more
experimental range, be it the chorus post-traditional gospel of “Suttee”
with its looped “you will never love again”-line or the almost chamber
musical extortionist vocalism of the piano and cello based “A neck in the
dessert”. The later more Knitting Factory than open fireplace. When the
songs are more traditional and structured, she still dwells in dark and
depressive waters, looking at the world like a flat curve endlessly driving
downwards. It is a bleak outline, perfectly fit to the sound of a
melancholically played cello and simple figures on the piano or the guitar.
On the other hand, Hysen takes
no limits or rules when painting her vision into sounds, as dark as it may
be. She knows very well how to structure a score, how to set a scene, so to
speak. “Everything derives from the curve” says Euklid about
two-thousand years ago while formulating the geometric and mathematical
basics for our society today still. Closing that mutation with Picastro,
every song on “become secret” sounds like the final song on a record,
like the final score of a movie. like the last song you want to hear today.
She takes herself and the listener to some places that you only want to
visit late at night, when it is dark and your soul is in a somber mood,
ready to face what is hiding behind the curtains of your mind. What you know
very well you are keeping secret from yourself. Shall I call this
subconscious folk, just to prove a point?
After all is said and done,
there is no need to prove anything anymore, especially not points. “become
secret” lives on sparse arrangements that are taken to full effect and
grow like a cinematic score to the pictures in your head. There are movies
so bleak, they seem to be shot in black and white, even though they are not.
This album seems to be recorded in such a way. And I have to admit it is
fascinating to listen to, to fall into, even if only in certain moods.
With the winter outside and
the sun going down very early, it is easy to fall into a mindset of despair
and depression. Every other person I meet mentions how they long for to see
the sun again, after three or four weeks of clouds, grey and sleet in a row.
Quite surprisingly, I found out, that “become secret” is also an album
to help you out of that kind of seasonal depression. Be it a cathartic
effect or be it the washing down of bleakness by its pristine, subtle
beauty, I cannot say, but it works. And that counts.
