|
"Fools and Orphans" is the third album by this once-of-New-York-now-of-Wisconsin artist that I've had the pleasure of hearing. I enjoyed the first two but this is the one you should pick up, and here's why: This is the recording where Jo Gabriel's voice is as important as her piano playing.
Her piano styling is quiet, understated and inviting... earthy. Other artists have taken the route of one singer, one piano before but few have utterly eschewed the histrionic as Jo has done. The album is dark but is also calming, less like the city at midnight and more like being wrapped up in your favorite quilt watching snow falling at dusk.
Her work with the piano is enough to recommend her CDs, and I have done so with her previous outings. But its her voice that makes "Fools and Orphans" a sure sell. She has a quality and tone similar to Kate Bush, but she stays closer to the material plane. Jo is more down to Earth, more grounded than the amazing Ms Bush, but we're all the better for it. Yet Jo's vocals aren't heavy. There's a beautiful, breathless wonder here and her voice is soothing, rising and falling like a wave. Kate's work evokes a soundtrack to a movie, Jo's is a soundtrack to events from our lives.
If this collection was nothing but eleven songs of only Jo and her piano it would be worth obtaining. But she's craftier than that, she's orchestrated in a wide variety of instruments (Linda Mackley on gentle, perfect percussion, Matt Turner on cello, Stephanie Rearick on trumpet, Wendy Schneider with guitar and "the little machine that could drone on", Jo herself adds the concertina). The key here being that all the additional instruments compliment and accent Jo's vocals and piano playing. They emphasize, not displace, Jo on at the center of this recording. The ensemble is like the opposite of negative space in a painting. Here what's on the outside isn't empty but it helps us focus all the more.
(I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Hannah Fury makes a guest appearance on the song "The Habits of Shadows". I really enjoyed Hannah's CD "Through the Gash" so finding her on "Fools and Orphans" was a welcome treat.)
I hate to say that Jo Gabriel is "one to watch" but the complexity of her work is growing without losing any of it's beauty, so I will say that she is definitely "one to listen to".
--
Jo Gabriel:
http://www.jogabriel.com/
http://www.myspace.com/jogabriel
Kalinkaland:
http://www.kalinkaland.de/new/index.php
|
