Reviewing every track from an album, as I have been with Elea Calvet’s Spurious Forms, is a challenging and interesting task. On the one hand, it enables you to get to the heart of an artist’s work, draw parallels between songs, find familiar themes, and hopefully understand a bit more about them as an artist. On the other hand, I often sit down at the keyboard and wonder if, as more of the task lies behind me than ahead, there is still anything new to say or any new revelations to be had.
But, as soon as I drop the virtual needle on the digital record, as soon as the music starts to whisk me away into Calvet’s singular sonic realm, all such concerns vanish.
“Something Blue” is no exception. I have probably talked about the spaciousness of her music before, but here, it is a dominating force, it becomes an instrument in its own right, a series of atmospheres tethered and connected only by minimal piano chords and her emotive and emploring voice. Sonic washes and disembodied harmonies ebb and flow, gently underlining and punctuating as required, but this is the sound of music made in the sonic spaces.
It is in these spaces, as the vocals pause for breath to usher in the following lyrical line, moments between one fading piano note and the next drifting into consciousness, that the heart of the song is found. It is as if the words and notes are only there to frame and encapsulate this background atmosphere that imperceptibly wells up, almost unbidden.
It is like the music is a conduit, drawing more primal sounds shaman-like from another sonic reality. But then there has always been something different about Elea Calvet’s music, something not of this world, and such a sonic ritual, such a drawing up of lost sounds and dark sentiments from elsewhere, does explain a lot.
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