Acquainted with Night

Albumbeschreibung

She may be a part of the noisy Sub Pop stable, but Lael Neale feels more intimate and dreamlike. In short, light years away from the original ambiance of the Seattle label... on her website, this crystal-clear-voiced goldsmith describes her passion for the old books of John Steinbeck, Ralph Waldo Emerson and the poems of Mary Oliver. Originally from Virginia, she went into exile, between 2009 and 2019, in Los Angeles, looking for a musical Eden for her rather folksy songs. “I felt the songs had been stripped of their vitality in the process of layering drums, bass, guitar, violin, and organ over them. They felt weighed down”. In 2015, she still managed to bring out the folk release I'll Be Your Man... When the pandemic broke out, LA was transformed, and a return to the family farm in the rural valley of Shenandoah became necessary. In Lael Neale's suitcase, an Omnichord borrowed from a friend. A rather weird instrument that offers an electronic counterpart to the autoharp and which provides her singing voice with an ideal accomplice. Above all, it's a toy that inspires her and has seen her write and compose like never before.

On Every Star Shivers in the Dark, Lael Neale takes in tunes from the Australian Julia Jacklin. Elsewhere, we think of a rural Lana Del Rey who might make a low-fi Stereolab... Acquainted With Night is full of strangeness of that kind. The young woman's poetry is frankly unique, juggling with everyday life, a certain sense of dark humour sometimes, romanticism too, and an endearing melancholy. She has stolen a few gothic values from Steinbeck, which she has worked into miniatures. All this is fascinating and her city/country dilemma smoulders (she sings of this turmoil on Every Star Shivers in the Dark), as she sets it to music most tastefully. A real revelation. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz