A good music review, such as the one that follows, should offer more than a collection of cheers or jeers. It should tell us something about the performer and the distinctive qualities of the recording--details that will allow our readers to decide for themselves whether the music is worth listening to. In other words, as with any writing project, keep the audience in mind.
Notice how music journalist Erin O'Keefe has based this review of "Klima" on an interview with the artist as well as on her own thoughtful and sensitive response to the music.
A New Voice Emerges in Paris
by Erin O'Keefe
"Tears always in the city," Angèle David-Guillou sings delicately with a tinge of defeat, "And they never seem to leave me alone." An opening line that aptly sets the tone of David-Guillou's debut album self-titled under her stage moniker, Klima.
The record was released in 2007 under Peacefrog, an independent record label expert at finding and supporting remarkable, undiscovered talent (take Peter, Bjorn, and John or Josè Gonzalez for example). Although "Klima" is her first solo effort, Angèle David-Guillou has previously recorded and performed as part of the French pop group Ginger Ale--later signed to Virgin France.
Classically trained multi-instrumentalist David-Guillou composed and programmed her debut record at her home on an eight-track machine--not a common feat nowadays. The humble settings of the album's beginnings, however, do not carry over to its final cut as you might think. In fact, just one listen to "Klima" leaves an impression of the highest recording professionalism.
Klima's collaborators likely have much to do with the album's professional-sounding outcome. Jerome Tcherneyan on drums, Christophe Rosin on guitar, and post-production engineer Guy Fixsen of Laika and the Cosmonauts are a few of the talented folks involved.
"With Jerome we finished a first version of the album, but I wanted the sound to be more live," David-Guillou says, "I wanted some real strings in particular. This is where Guy Fixsen got involved. I knew his work with Laika very well."
Placing Klima's music into a neatly labeled box of trip-hop, alternative, or some other established genre would not serve the music well. Klima's music escapes generification.
"I didn't want to make an electronic nor an acoustic record," David-Guillou explains when asked about how she achieved the particular sound and feel of the album. "I like to mix both sounds. I also like to mix electric and acoustic guitars." David-Guillou and her production team achieved that dreamy, abstract sense by "an extensive use of reverb and delays."
Her vocals are suspended somewhere between the heartbroken lamenting of Beth Gibbons (Portishead) or Morrissey and the calculated, harsh, vocal styling typically heard on tracks by Massive Attack or Tricky. Klima's sound, instead, consists of a unique style of composition that exudes an ephemeral, hypnotic aura.
"It's unavoidable that my influences can be heard," David-Guillou admits. "I listen to a lot of music [and] I knew what I didn't want my album to sound like. In particular, I didn't want to sound like a female singer/songwriter who can sing and play guitar. I wanted it to be richer than that."
Lavishly layered vocals, languid, droning organ chimes, and samples of live-recorded sounds account for lush harmonies that leave listeners transported. Klima can take you far away, if you let her.
"When I was sitting on my sofa and looking at the cars driving by, I quite often felt like I was actually the one moving," David-Guillou says of her inspiration for the first track on the album. "'The City' is about being on my own in that flat and wanting someone to be there with me."
Keep an eye on Klima--I expect her name to start popping up in bigger places in the near future.
More information on Klima can be found on her Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/contactklima. Her debut album can be ordered from Peacefrog at http://www.peacefrog.com or from http://www.amazon.com.
"A New Voice Emerges in Paris," by Erin O'Keefe, originally appeared in The Inkwell (September 2007), the student newspaper of Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia. You can find additional reviews by Erin O'Keefe at her MOG site, Incurably Erin.
