Ten to One Rec.
Joolie Wood : Tales of Colour and White (4track EP) (UK,2006)****
After many years as collaborator with Current 93 mostly, and as a guest with various other groups I think it is about time Joolie Wood shows her own visions in a solo work. This is a 4-track EP, which gives me the impression there's more in the pipeline that deserves to be revealed, hopefully in a future full-length release. First instrumental, "Jewel Song", is like a miniature or a small jewel, and is a beautiful instrumental introduction built upon vibrating harmoniously welding sounds mixed with guitar, harp and violin : a rich world on its own revealed in only two minutes, as if Alice shows her Wonderland. "You own the Universe" features the nice picking from Simon Finn, and some simple butterly glimpses of piano by Maja Elliot, and some spring time flute by Joolie, a happy-sad beautiful song. "Where all the flowers grow" with second male narration by Karl Blake reminds a bit of Current 93 (during 'Earth covers Earth', where the the group wanted to create their own "Second Utterage" to Comus), which has a similar sadness in combination with a joyful wish for hapiness. On the last track, "Melt in the Snow" Karl Blake plays two small parts of "very electric guitar". It is a kind of revealing and descriptive psychfolk track, with a bit of improvisation into the mood. The cooperation between the musicians works beautifully as a group. 4 tracks only are a bit short and make a wish for more. Recommended !
Joolie composes, sings and plays samples, harp, organ, violin, recorder, melodica on this release. Participants here are Simon Finn (guitar on two of four tracks), Karl Blake, vocals and electric guitar, Maja Elliot, piano on three tracks, and Baby Dee with harp on the last track (which I did not notice). Joolie has played and written tunes for the past 16 years with Current 93. She also plays and record more often with Simon Finn and occassionally plays with Sundial. She contributed with many many more artists. She was also to be found on the new Castro album.
More links :
Baby Dee's release I hope to find and review soon
