The Squid’s Ear
Flo Wetzel
cd review
Heard In
Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.
Julia Vorontsova From St. Petersburg with
Love (Abaton Book Company)
Abaton Book Company has done it again.
Their good taste and unerring instinct has brought singers
Marianne Nowottny and Devorah Day into the public eye, and now
it's Julia Vorontsova's turn. Originally from Russia,
Vorontsova now resides in Jersey City, NJ, where Abaton
co-founder Mark Dagley met her at an art opening. After hearing
a few MP3s, Abaton recorded From St. Petersburg with Love
November 2003 to February 2004, with mastering by the venerable
Elliott Sharp.
Vorontsova follows the classic
girl'n'guitar folk model, but the roots of this music are much
deeper: in Russia there is a long tradition of bards, or to put
it plainly, singing poets. Vorontsova is not a
singer/songwriter, but a poet who performs her work with voice
and guitar. For Russian listeners, the distinction is clear;
for everyone else it probably doesn't matter, but it perhaps
explains the beautiful depth of Vorontsova's expression, and
the timeless quality of her music.
Vorontsova is clearly quite gifted. She has
a low, lovely voice, husky at times and quite pure. She is
simultaneously innocent and world-weary, with a haunting,
ineffable quality. There's a heartbreaking melancholy to her
songs and an ethereality that keeps things buoyant. At
twenty-one years old, she is the proverbial old soul, with a
voice and mood that gets under the listener's skin.
All the songs are performed in Russian, a
language this reviewer knows not. Certainly understanding the
lyrics would deepen the listening experience, but the language
gap actually works to enhance the cd's appeal: without the
possibility of verbal interpretation, the music is all feeling
and sound, adding to its ethereal quality. Abaton does its best
to fill in the gap by providing liner notes that give
Vorontsova's short takes on the songs, as well as a line or two
of the lyrics. They reveal Vorontsova to be the sensitive soul
she clearly is, and also show her sense of humor. A typical
example is the song "Keys": Vorontsova writes,
"A song about breaking up and losing your keys," with
lyrics including the line, "Now anyone can have you but
I." Or the song "Pushkin": "In Russia if
anything goes wrong, we just say Pushkin did it." Like
Joni Mitchell's Blue, From St. Petersburg with Love creates and
sustains a soulful, melancholy mood, while at the same time
maintaining a bright pop center. And like Blue, a few songs
throw in something a little different, varying the mood rather
than breaking it. "Rock n Roll" has an uptempo,
rockabilly feel, "For My Joy" is accompanied by a jaw
harp, and "One Kitten" includes purring and meowing
while contemplating the question, "Where's paradise for
little kitties? Where is it?" (And if you think that's
sappy, admit it: you don't know where it is, either.)
This is a special cd, one that can be
listened to over and over again and lived with closely. It is
not the record for your fifteen-year-old headbanger nephew, but
for those who appreciate quiet beauty and crystal-clear talent,
it's just perfect.
