Digipack + booklet limited to 1000 ex.
Ref : prik122
Ref : Loreenna Mckennitt, Kate Bush
Style : pop folk, ambient, female voices.
Explore the cats' mysteries Australian singer-songwriter Louisa John-Krol has a background as professional storyteller, her Welsh father was himself a specialist in Celtic myths. In her new album Louisa brings us in a feline universe through the myth of cats, sphinx, tigers and other mythological creatures. As said an Irish Legend 'A cat's eyes are windows...into another world', Louisa imagines and creates this new world, an ethereal & mysterious land.
"Louisa's soprano swoops through pieces that meld folk, progressive pop, electronica and new age in inventive and pleasing ways. LJK reminds one of Loreena McKennitt and Kate Bush. Like those women, she composes with her wild muse wherever it leads her using her mandolin, guitar and many other instruments ocarina, gong, Tibetan chimes, xylophone, piano-tuba...Other instruments include harp, charango, hammered dulcimer, flute, bass and bowed psaltery. Musicians/producers are Harry Williamson and Brett Taylor, with guests Dandelion Wine, Theodore Wohng, Samantha Taylor and Keltia."
15 Tracks
: 1. Cauldron of Morning, 2. Blue Beyond the Sky, 3. I am the Djinn, 4. Temples of the Jaguar, 5. Beautiful Lie, 6. Fai, 7. Dulcinea, 8. Two Cats Return Pomegranate to the Underworld . Part I: ‘Jinn Jinnee’; Part II: ‘Sardathrion’, 9. Tree, 10. Yellow Leaves,
11. Chant of the Chimney Djinn , 12. Lu-Lu in the Hall of Dreaming Cats, 13. A Retinue of Mandrakes (Juniper Berries) (5:21),
14. Aphelion, 15. Colours of Angels
References:
Loreena
McKennitt, Kate Bush
October 2005 : 12 tracks
Louisa John-Krol is a fantastic artist, with a voice made of purest
crystal,
and a fabulous storyteller.
Her new album "Apple Pentacle" leads us into a fairy world
made of various stories flowing mostly from Green Man mythology.
The Spirit of the Greenwood roves through the ages as Robin Hood,
Egyptian Osiris, Arcadian Pan, Dionysus, Tolkien's Treebeard, Vishnu,
Puck, Atho and other incarnations. With cinematic lyris and fairy
soundscapes, Louisa's music is a subtle mix of modern production
with ancestral themes and instruments (viola, mandolin, dulcimer,
hurdy-gurdy, harpsichord). The result is dreamy fairy pop music
with a beautiful, heavenly voice.
Like Kate Bush, she explores the different feelings in her voice:
sensual,
sweet, harsh or ethereal, as if her creatures embody her soul. Let's
enter her bewitching worlds.
Tracks
:
Atho, The windrow, Which of these worlds?, Spin, Birch Wandering,
Escalder's Tree Ride, Canterville, The green Pentacle, Ceracini,
Poppet plum, The witch in the wood, Kunmanngur
Review
:
The Scottish folklorist Andrew Lang collected European myths and
folktales, retold them for a Victorian audience, and grouped them
according to theme and, ultimately, color. Australian singer-songwriter
Louisa John-Krol has a background as professional storyteller, and
like Lang, has found a common theme, stories of the Green Man, and
uses this album to explore a cross-cultural archetype, from the
English Robin Hood to the Welsh Atho. The wonderfully whimsical
package comes with extensive liner notes, including an essay about
the appearances of the Green Man in world mythology. It‚s a
high concept album that sounds pretensions and self-indulgent on
paper.
But John-Krol and her cohorts (husband Mark, producers Harry Williamson
and Brett Taylor) attempt to evoke her overarching concept through
music. Indeed, the lyrics are impressionistic˜they are snippets
of half-told tales and are sung with such delicacy and precision,
they are inseparable from the music. LJK's soprano swoops through
pieces that meld folk, progressive pop, electronica and new age
in inventive and pleasing ways. After an ethereal invocation of
the opening 'Atho', the Wurlitzer-heavy 'The Windrow' plays like
a vintage Jefferson Airplane piece. 'Which One of These Worlds'
begins with Laurie Anderson-like processed vocals before descending
into propulsive trance electronica. 'Spin' and ' The Green Pentacle'
are medieval folk, with hurdy-gurdy and harp accompanying acoustic
guitar. The closing 'Kummanngur'is a drone-filled tribal song that
wouldn't sound out of place on a Delirium album. One of the pleasures
of this album is how the disparate musical set pieces fit together
like a puzzle. You can barely see the joinery between the modern
touches (synthesizers, drum machines) and archaic instruments, such
as dulcimers, violas and harps.
LJK reminds one of Loreena McKennitt and Kate Bush, and like those
women, she‚s a multi-instrumentalist and composer who follows
her wild muse wherever it leads her. She does bringer a darker,
if not gothic, aspect to her music that grounds her flights of fancy.
This dark, dreamy album is the aural equivalent of the fairytale
art of Edmund Dulac and Gustav Dore. --Craig L. Gidney
LOUISA
JOHN-KROL &
OOPHOI
I
hear the water dreaming
prik092
- Digipack
Strictly limited to 1000 ex.
Style:
Ambiant - zen - mystique References: Loreena Mac Kennit, Enya,
Sheila Chandra
2005 - 7 Titles -
Oophoi
is famous for his intimist ambiant music, he is considered as a Master
in his art. Louisa's voice brings a melodic and 'fairyesque'
dimension to his music. The meeting of these 2 musicians results in
a mysterious, ethereal and oniric ambience reminding Louisa's song "Approaching
the island of Siren" on her last album Alabaster.
Louisa's voice is reminiscent of Sheila Chandra's sing (without the
Indian mood). Bamboo flute, singing bowl, crystals, insects sounds,
birds, mandolin, ocarina attract us in an aquatic world populate with
Sirens, Sylphids and amniotic dreams.
Titles
: 1 The narm Owl - 2 Conversations
between a wolf and a firefly - 3 the hour of fauns -4 Let the Nightsky
envelope us -5 cavern of dreaming shelles - the dream of Cydron -
the dream of Kalyh - the dream of narwal - 6 the whispering valley
- 7a vassel for Michael
Review
:
Louisa John-Krol has been really active in the first half of 2005.
She released her collaborative album with Daemonia Nymphe a couple
of months ago and now she's back again with another collaboration
with Oophoi. I HEAR THE WATER DREAMING is basically different from
"Ghostfish" and if the collaboration with the Greek combo
was based on electric ballads enriched by percussions and traditional
instruments, this new album sounds more dilated. Thing that reflects
that album's title. Each track seems to be focuse on a dreamy state
where Oophoi's ambient music meet Louisa's chants. Maybe this is
the reason why the project is credited to Oophoi & Louisa John-Krol
and it insn't the contrary. The seven tracks (the fifth one is divided
into four different movements: "Cavern of dreaming shelles",
"The dream of Cydron", "The dream of Kalyh"
and "The dream of narwal") are like suites that tend to
stop the rhythmical part of music just to create a water like ambience.
The effect created is paragonable to a paused movie on a broken
video player: the image is still but it is also trembling, it seems
to change colors, etc. Try to imagine you taking a nap near a cascade
and suddenly you start to hear distant siren's chants. The result
is quite relaxing and interesting at the same time but you've got
to stop and sit down for a while to appreciate this release. Maurizio Pustianaz
Chaindlk 4,5/5
"Ambient
music is like automatic writing; the sounds seem to come from a
deep reservoir in the subconscious. The Italian sound designer Oophoi
constructs environments— full of oceanic sounds. Drones, altered
sounds of nature and subliminal melodies all combine to aural paintings
of the depths. Louisa John-Krol listened to a bunch of previously
released Oophoi compositions and wrote nascent melodies and lyrics
for them. The words are like intriguing, half-told myths; shimmering
stream-of-conscious images that dart and dodge like shoals of fish.
John-Krol’s silver-toned voice unfurls and drifts through the
sonic sea like flotsam. “I Hear The Water Dreaming” is
what a collaboration between Kate Bush at her most ethereal and
Eno at his most amorphous might sound like. Many of the tracks bleed
into each other, but closing angelic hymn “A Vessel for Michael,”
a tribute to John-Krol’s deceased father, rises like foam above
the water." Craig Gidney -
Heathen harvest
Alabaster
prik069 - Digipack
Style: Folk-romantic References: Loreena Mac Kennit, Enya,Kate Bush, Emilia Torrini..
May
2003 - 12 Titles
Bewitching,
romantic, ethereal pop: whimsy & energy reminiscent of Emilia Torrini,
The Moors, Kate Bush. Fairy voice, mandolin, flute, percussion, table
harp, charango, piano, lyre, bass, ocarina, clarinet. Luminosity with
bursts of progressive rock, ghostly encounters, a tribute to the poet
Emily dickinson, Hamlet's Ophelia, a renaissance ballad and dark ambience
of Sirens. The mythical basis for this album (and its twin to come)
is the union of Persephone and Hades: an embrace between life and
death. Featuring the neo-classical band Daemonia Nymphe, Lys, Francesco
Banchini (GoR/Ataraxia); ambience of Oophoi; and Olaf Parusel (Stoa).
TITLES:
The Throng on the Pier / The Lily and the rose / Waterwood / Stone
lake / Me and the machine / Light on the wall / The seventh ingress
/ paint the wind / How should your true love know? / The search
for lost souls- Midnight / Approaching the island of Sirens/ Dancing
over Acheron
Alabaster
The fairy Louisa keeps surprising. Her fourth album is like a new
treasure box, even richer than Ariel (2001) and Alexandria (1999)
- all spiritual pearls and sounds brought back from fantasy land.
Prestigious guests are invited on some songs, such as Daemonia Nymphe
("The Throng on the Pier"), Francesco Banchini (GoR; "The
Lily and the Rose"), Olaf Parusel (sToa, on the crystal-like
"The Seventh Ingress"), Harry Williamson (Faraway), and
Gianluigi Gasparetti (Oophoi, "Approaching the Island of Sirens").
If the album's main theme is clearly the union between Persephone
and Hades, it is also about friendship and exchange, two never ending
sources of inspiration. Aside mellow and dreamy ballads ("The
Search for Lost Souls", based on a poem from the American Emily
Dickinson; "The Throng on the Pier", based on Dante and
Homer; the moving "Waterwood" with its "night birds"
flutes). Louisa John-Krol, whose honey-like voice is a pure pleasure,
keeps experimenting with songs that are more pop-rock ("Stone
Lake", "Paint the Wind", dedicated to the painter Karan
Wicks, and mostly "Me and the Machine" which strangely reminds
of Garbage regardless of the mandolin!). There, the gifted production
of Brett Taylor makes it a wonder - besides he co-signs all the tracks
and plays the guitar. Nevertheless, it is only at the very end of
the album that the biggest surprise comes: a semi-hidden track, the
techno "Dancing over Acheron", electronic sounds in the
instruments and the voices. Out of time and uniquely elegant, Alabaster
is a pleasure which grows after each listening. It is maybe beautiful
Louisa's best album and we can't wait to see her on stage very soon.
Frédéric Cotton (translated by Philippe Lambrechts)
Ariel
prik049
- Digipack
Style:
Folk-romantic References: Loreena Mac Kennit
june 2001 - 12 Titles - 45'
Louisa grew up in native Australian bushland. She takes her inspiration
in literature, mythology, poetry and Nature. She studied voice,
guitar and piano; mandolin was self-taught. During the early nineties,
she shared a groupe-house with artists including Dawn Perry, who
introduced her to the music of her brother Brendan's duo (Dead-Can-Dance)
On Ariel, mandoline, heavenly voices, percussions, flute, cello,
string quartet, derbouka... lead us into romantic and dreamy worlds.
A masterpiece in the field of romantic pop-ethereal fairy music.
TITLES:
Blackbird / Red Balloon / Numb the wren year / Nobelius' garden
/ Beads of rain / The seagiant / Ariel / Alice in the garden of
life flowers / Tale of a thorn / Salamander / Anemone falling /
Sentinel
Style:
Folk-romantique References: Loreena Mac Kennit juin
2000 - 12 Titles -60'
Alexandria is a realm of dragons
and centaurs. Invisible cities of Calvino and Cavafy come to life,
with Louisa's own Madame Alchemier and Valley of Seven Keys. Other
inspirations are Milton's "Lycidas", Dante's Limbo (Canto
IV) where pagan souls dwell, 15th century music of Baixa dansa Barcelona,
and novelists Ramon Perez de Ayala, Dostoyevsky, Max Frisch and
Shiga Naoya. Engineered/co-produced by Harry Williamson.
TITLES
: Alexandria,Contradiction is the Dragon, Hide in your Shadow, Fortress,
Talim Ridge, Belarmino's Dictionary, Paper Door, Ariel's Flight,
The Valley of Seven Keys, Madame Alchemier, Canto IV, The Last Centaur.
Style:
Folk-romantique References: Loreena Mac Kennit juin
2000 - 12 Titles -55'
Argo
refers to the legendary ship of the Argonauts. In our age of prescribed
mysteries, journeying out of bureaucratised realms is an adventure,
whether or not we return with the Golden Fleece. The album celebrates
Renaissance alchemist Ficino, Sufis Idries Shah and Ibn Arabi, Sumerian
goddess Inanna, authors Dunsany, Blake, Kipling, Walter de la Mare
and Holderlin, Celtic faerietales and Greek mythology. Engineered/co-produced
by Harry Williamson.
TITLES : Dunsany's Hope, Hyperion, Argo, I'm Not Walking, Little
Wanderer, Inanna, Out of The Equipage, Inside the Bubble, House
of Legend, Duncan the Fiddler, Oak, Ash and Thorn, The Healer's
Names
COMPILATIONS
:
2004 : "Fairy World" Vol 1 - Prikosnovenie, France
2002 : Love sessions (collaboration)
2002 : "L'Odyssee" - Prikosnovenie, France
"Belladonne: a sampler of fairy voices", Prikosnovenie,
France
Extract from an interview with Obskure webzine, France 2003:
« Alabaster » foundations are
based on positive feelings, like friendship or meetings. But we
can perceive a dark surrounding on songs. Do you think that the
ambivalence of mankind pushes us to not take simply the benefit
of these positive feelings, and that it leads you to transcribe
these through your songs ?
How
do we delineate foundations or surroundings? Ambivalence haunts
each ripple of alchemy, each crack in the marble, each line of laughter
or pain, and at the same time illuminates, like the tension of light
and shadow in a painting. An earlier song of mine, “Contradiction
is the Dragon” explored Ibn Arabi’s notion that when we
see a contradiction, we are looking at reality. This might be one
way to interpret Alabaster.
For from being monotonous, « Alabaster » leads the listener
in many places, but always in the landscape you draw, being very
homogeneous. Are you conscious of building a real universe, warm,
bright and sometimes sad, as real life is, but in a sort of parallel
world ?
Perhaps. I’ve had vivid dreams that feel like visits into a
parallel life. They sometimes contain people familiar to me here,
but in different situations or guises, and interconnected by threads
of recognition, so that I feel they are coming from a universe that’s
consistent and convincing. In that world I can fly or swim like
a waterbird. Sirens have sung in voices of my sisters. I’ve
danced on a chessboard under midnight stars. In one, a friend called
my name, his footsteps echoing on a marble floor. Alabaster is a
kind of marble, and refers to the Alabaster Chambers of Emily Dickinson’s
poetry. A parallel life is touched upon in our song “Light
on the Wall” on Alabaster.
Fayries are still breeding this album. Do
you think they could evolve with the present world ? Or do you think
this stories should be kept in mind, in order to get a proper view
on real life ? As they were written by ancients and cross ages,
they might carry wisdom ?
Perhaps Faeries are evolving with us, not only as elementals, but
also as mischievous companions in our urban activities! And yes,
I believe that literary and oral traditions of the Ancients still
speak to us.
The packaging of « Alabaster »
is wonderful ! Do you have a total confidence in Sabine ? Do you
give her the music and then she draws, or the opposite way ?
Yes, I have total confidence in Sabine. Her artwork is one of the
reasons I signed to Prikosnovenie, when Frederic Chaplain wrote
to introduce the label. Sabine, in my view, wields a mastery of
colour to convey emotion and intrigue, while displaying a quirky
sense of humour that sets her art apart from more sombre images
associated with our scene. Yes, there’s an interplay between
music and design, but we respect each other’s independence.
Dining in Sabine’s home, I found her as enigmatic and charming
as her art.
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