Luminous trees
Festival Primavera Club 2010 opened again its arms to its simultaneous celebration in Barcelona and Madrid. Among its varied and extensive range, the presence of the English duo Smoke Fairies has been one of the most widely desired and then satisfying experiences of many lived in that busy week of music. After a debut EP, Frozen Heart (Music For Heroes Records, 2009), which was strongly welcome, now they present their debut album Through light and low trees (Music For Heroes Records, 2010).
Barcelona’ Sala Apolo began in a little bit cold receiving and assistance, but it was evident throughout the concert that was more due to the busy schedule of the festival than to a lack of interest. By the third song the room was full and the heat raised by the two young songwriters was a fact. Their voices seemed to come from very remote sites with a chilling echo that frightened you feeling hosted at the same time. A dual feeling rarely experienced. And so is their dim light under the trees, a place where the devil dances for the pleasure of life.
Barcelona’ Sala Apolo began in a little bit cold receiving and assistance, but it was evident throughout the concert that was more due to the busy schedule of the festival than to a lack of interest. By the third song the room was full and the heat raised by the two young songwriters was a fact. Their voices seemed to come from very remote sites with a chilling echo that frightened you feeling hosted at the same time. A dual feeling rarely experienced. And so is their dim light under the trees, a place where the devil dances for the pleasure of life.
Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies have had some guest star appearances from the beginning of the recording of their EP. Drums by Andy Newmark, experienced with John Lennon and David Bowie, and bass by Al Mobbs, associate Gorillaz and many others, mainly as a result of having in production for the first track David Coulter, a renowned for his work with Tom Waits and Nick Cave. The rest of them, produced by Leo Abrahams, admired for his work with Brian Eno and David Byrne and Jarvis Cocker. If we add the quality of their compositions on the brink of another world, and voices and electric guitars that draw passages of no return, their music goes beyond exquisiteness.
Now their debut album continues all this golden twilight. It comes tinged with tenuous atmospheres and sharp sounds, even inviting us to dance with death as the final scene in Bergmam’s Det sjunde inseglet (1957). There are songs that have always been among us and sound like a repetition but others such as Erie Lackawanna, Summer Fades or Storm Song are leading a proposal that encourages looking at the other side and think that every moment is eternal. The drums sound because I have a Devil in my mind.
Text by Juan Carlos Romero
Photos courtesy of Primavera Sound