Linda Oláh and Giani Caserotto have been in various separate bands for the best part of twenty years, with Linda also spending time with the French Orchestre National de Jazz. Having known one another for some time, this is their first outing together as Lovers, and with Giani’s multi-instrumental and production prowess, Linda’s impressive vocal range and a shared love of all things musically adventurous, this is a match made in heaven, with the album being a production in thrall to love in all its guises.
Although nominally a song-based album, some of the pieces are more abstract soundscapes, with Linda’s vocal presence inhabiting different characters as the song and lyrics might demand; and this sense of dipping in and out of different sound worlds makes for a very engaging listen. The album opens with a distorted throb and a spangly guitar loop which has a slightly subterranean feel. It dwells with electronics scattering like so many sparks. The voice is a distant cool ingredient that changes as the album progresses, being what you want it to be from a fractured hall of mirrors to a yearning soulful croon and sometimes moving though phases as if shrouded by cloud.
Musically, this diversity is becoming and it feels as though Giani is using sound in an impressionistic way to fully do justice to Linda’s vocal range. A deep bass rumble and sparkling electronics on “Stop Reasoning With My Heart” rub shoulders with the scattered sky canvas of “Let Us Be Real”, which ironically is one of the least grounded pieces here, its impression being that of some strange forge or foundry. Some motifs sound familiar as the album goes on, they borrow briefly and then transform and the gaps between songs are blurred, with the whole album definitely designed to be listened to in one sitting. Where the gaps are obvious, it makes the start of that piece just a little more dramatic. When everything is stripped right back, as on the stark “Summer dreaming’, the yearning in Linda’s voice becomes all the more palpable. The atmosphere of “Dancing In The Dark” is womb-like, with ebbing electronics and the crackling of fire causing a warm sensation, but one that is slightly disorientating and as it keeps moving it is difficult to figure what might happen next. In some of the more accessible parts, there is a similarity with what Julee Cruise and Angelo Badalamenti produced together; but Giani and Linda are more willing to go further off the beaten track, with Linda’s voice a braver and more agile instrument.The editing of the album is very important and the way it runs is well considered, its suite-like construction drawing you in, the minute attention to textural detail meaning each moment is never repeated. You don’t necessarily register these subtle changes, but they are happening all the time. The voice becomes a deep resonant burr on “Beautiful Things”, with its backdrop of distorted fireworks; while the ambient wash of closer “Farval”, made up of tiny plankton-like particles, caresses the sultry forlorn voice with the final words “I love you still and I always will” delivered with a jazzy lilt and a heartworn beauty.
It is a fine ending to an imaginative, romantic and consuming album. They have been working on these songs for the best part of ten years and I can only hope it won’t be be another ten before we hear from them again.-Mr Olivetti-
