Johanna Glaza – Wind Sculptures (Inspired All Kinds
Records/Johanna Glaza)
CD / DL
29 September 2017
9 / 10
Lithuanian born alternative folk artist releases her long
awaited debut album.
Like the incredible Phildel, Johanna Glaza has an amazing
vocal range and deserves to be a household name. Pitching in somewhere between Kate Bush (the
comparisons will be inevitable) and Elizabeth Fraser, it is one of those voices
that often needs no musical accompaniment – perhaps the reason why much of the
album is sparse with distant sounds and expanses of beautiful quiet.
Formerly fronting cult band Johanna And The Wolf, Glaza has
released an album that is often bordering genius and always encapsulating. Songs are more than songs, they are
individually superbly constructed and well-thought mini operettas and, collectively,
a journey through emotions, wolves and mythological form.
An album containing nothing more than ‘piano, ukulele, glockenspiel
and beats’, not forgetting ‘lungs’, begins with the masterful Space Mermaid a
track which on first listen may be hard to get to grips with, builds from the very
first second with a chorus that is infectious and captivating as it swirls,
dreamlike into the inner sanctum of your mind.
Wind Sculptures is like nothing you will have heard for some
time and, for a moment returning to the subject of one Kate Bush, should be attracting
heavy media spotlighting very soon. The
simple piano playing and melodic, lushly scaled voice of Glaza is a delight to
hear and, a combination that should quite rightly attract musical pundits from all wakes. The diversity of her voice is like that of
Bush, particularly on some of the higher pitched words but let that not detract
from the quality her own voice. Angelic,
atmospheric and unique.
In The Shadow concentrates as much on textures and sounds as
it does a conventional song and, Desires is another song that is difficult to
shake off once heard with an addictive ‘call’ and a chorus that will simply not
disappear. Million Years is a stroke of
genius, once more combining beautiful backing with several lines that are
indelible to the sub-conscious.
What becomes quickly apparent is that Glaza has the ability
to write songs that seem to just strike a metaphorical chord and become
instantly likeable – perfect alternative pop if you will – a voice that can be
nothing other than admired and melodies that intrinsically ‘fit’. All Those Dreams is a track just waiting to
be discovered by the masses, a movie theme, a gigantic backdrop to the event of
the year, even just a snippet to a magnificent occasion. It weaves its beautiful piano repetition
around simmering percussion and obviously, the voice, that rises elegantly over
everything.
Johanna Glaza is an extraordinary talent and one which
surely cannot stay undiscovered for long.
Wind Sculptures is simply stunning on many levels and an album which
just has to be heard.
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