Pickled Egg Rec.
Suzy Mangion : The Other Side of The Mountain (UK,2008)** ' '
Usually a front cover reveals much of the music, but even the artwork concept here is kept a bit hidden in the booklet. Also the songs remain somewhat introverted. On “Come In By Stealth”, starting with café talk on the background, it is as if she has several thoughts, but does not want to use them as a form of communication. Hidden is the message, while using comprehensible words, like a regret of a goodbye or a metaphor projected in a world where comfort can’t be found. The song arrangements however which are sometimes kept simple are often still carefully arranged, like little children or better memories ranging from childhood times (the echoes to a musical box melody on “Spar Box”) to the present (the café), and above all some participating example or hint of a baroque sadness melody. “Many Happy Returns” brings in a Bach theme on church organ, mixed with a mellow tone in feelings. This organ tuning returns like an echo of a memory, which is musically associated with a Bach-alike minimalism, and which is almost like a trauma of a memory by playing it on harmonium on “The Incredible Friend”. The careful arrangements give several songs something almost religious, not only for the Bach reference to some point, but also in its personalised gospel-like vocal arrangements, which showed some beautiful overtone harmonies mixed with normal harmonies, arranged with her own voice more often, and sometimes a male second voice. All kinds of musical ideas comes forth from the electric piano. “There is no West” is arranged like chamber-music. The Italian song “Il Mondo é Qui” returns to the mellower feelings and is again associated with something of a baroque melody in the back of the head.
This is Suzy Mangion’s first solo album. She participated before with the band George (with Michael Varty) from the mid 90s until just recently. She is also part of the duo The Winter Journey, and a member of Spanish electronica group Arbol. She also has collaborated with Piano Magic on their album 'Writers Without Homes', and on the Big Eyes Family Players’s ‘Do The Musiking’.
