Laurel Premo
Michigan-based multi-instrumentalist Premo has enjoyed an adventurous career (she’s a
favourite of singer-songwriter Will Oldham, aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy), and she’s managed it
by simply going her own way, with little concession to mass taste. Sometimes, the muses can
lead an artist astray, but in the case of Laments, hers has guided her well on these tracks of
just violin and voice, enhanced by effects and the studio, and dark, beautiful explorations of
grief.
Sometimes ecstatic, this mix of voice (sometimes spoken word, other times wordless and possibly more powerful for not quite finding the expression of speech), these are full, prepared compositions rather than improvisations. They breathe and open up into shadowed avenues; witness "Lament 1."
For all that, there’s no holding back in the performances. The beauty might be bleak, but it’s definitely there. For all its lightweight title, “Grief Of The Angler” threads a tenuous, very personal path along pain. It feels real, almost an exorcism, a lifting of the weight grief can put on people. At times this feels like an intrusion into Premo’s emotions, but that’s no bad thing. Laments is an invitation, one that’s cathartic to accept.
Further reading and listening:
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