(3/6/5) 002: Jess Ribeiro - Howl
Editors note: Apparently the songs/videos don't embed in the email version of these blog posts so I'll include a direct link to listen from now on
"We'll sit here with the last of the light," Jess Ribeiro sings in the opening line of the closing song of her new album. Released last week, Summer of Love is Ribeiro's fourth full-length, a new chapter to a small collection of records that captivates in a multitude of ways, through a multitude of different colours and shades.
Where previous work, mostly notable 2012's debut My Little River, saw her embrace gently-picked folk songs, Summer of Love is richer and carried by an altogether more experimental edge, a decadent and soulful sound built upon with tape and drum loops, synth, guitars, piano, saxophone as well as plenty of guest turns.
"We'll sit here with the last of the light," she sings, as a stark piano subtly walks alongside her voice and Dirty Three's Jim White imbues the surrounding space with a measured and knowing brush of percussive moodiness.
And for a couple of minutes, that's what we have: voice, piano, drums. Until Ribeiro gently begins to shift from slender storyteller to a howl-at-the-moon enigma, her layered vocals conjuring a clouded fog of eeriness that fills the space with a mysterious sense of grace. From there, the instrumental shifts once more and takes hold, the piano somewhat more urgent, the melancholic atmosphere of the whole piece swelling softly but with a sense of aching menace always in the periphery.
"We'll sit here with the last of the light," she sings, casting the song in the half-light of dusk, where familiar shapes take on distorted forms, where certain things are not quite what they seem, and where other things often are.
So, we'll sit here with the last of the light.
Listen to 'Howl' on GoldFlakePaint / YouTube
Summer of Love is out now: jessribeiro.bandcamp.com
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