Drawing its influences from 1960s British electric folk, this collection of new songs from White Goddess, a multi-national group based in Granada, Andalucia, addresses the eternal perplexity of romantic love from the perspective of the spiritual quest. A siren invites a prospective lover to “place your faith into my hands” and promises, “death will be our slave”. Being “broken on the rocks of pain and grief” is heartbreak suffered willingly in pursuit of a higher knowledge. Inevitable fate is contemplated, set in motion from a time “before the sun was born”. Life is a “pagan dance” under the watchful eye of the goddess.
Musically there are echoes of bands like Pentangle and early Fairport Convention, the clear voiced singing of lead vocalist Marie O’Nette reminiscent of Jacqui McShee and Sandy Denny, through perhaps the overall tone is closer to Anne Briggs. Electric guitar breaks from Alberto Avilla Casas recall Jimmy Page’s legendary studio assists on Donovan’s Sunshine Superman, or Richard Thomson on Fairport’s best work. But the collection is grounded in its distinctive genre by the assured acoustic guitar accompaniment throughout from Darren Anderson, who also takes credit for composing the songs.
Anderson maintains the essential folk feel with playing that is varied and sometimes surprising, drawing on jazz and rock influences to enhance and twist the effect. A solid rhythmic underpinning from percussionist Javier Cantudo drives each tune. There is much here to enjoy from the music alone, occasional samples – sounds of the sea, an Indian drone - adding subtle references to the sonic ambience. But what lifts the songs out of routine romantic balladeering is the lyrical intensity. There is an unashamed address of the deeper meaning of life, especially as it’s experienced through the shaking of boundaries the heart feels when confronted by the mysteries of love.
It’s here that the album proves unique. The mystical imagery suggests a line of lyrical descent from the French Symbolist poetic tradition, but it is never too abstract. The earth and the heavens meet in songs that conjure deep nature and “the lord of dance”, but the modern city is very present, streets are wandered and lovers encountered. These are contemporary, urban songs that reference folk music’s deep roots in the rural past. There’s a sense that the genre is being refreshed, rather than simply continued. The elevation of personal suffering to meaningful experience through spiritual insight is the difficult artistic challenge attempted here. White Goddess pull it off.
As the wind went slowly turning
Through the trees and fires burning
In the mountain pagan dancing
While the Goddess watches us.
In the darkness slowly wandering
To a high place where the dawning
Sun begins to warm the morning
Leading us to silent hope.
With the ghosts of past wolves howling
And the phantom boars all grunting,
Painted faces, drums are rolling
While the mist is lifting off.
I will stumble to the growing
Peace within me, clearly humbling,
Taste the elements controlling
Everything that seemed so wild.
At the heights where falls are tumbling,
Taste the waters, purifying,
Cleansing senses, cold, refreshing
Centre of the universe.
One so small but cosmic, reeling,
As a consciousness revealing
Oneness with the ever growing
Bottomless awareness still.
There the lovers coiling, rolling,
There no difference appearing,
To the eyes a truth unveiling
Slowly for the open ones.
Unity is oceans merging
With the shore of understanding,
Drawing back illusion’s growling
Roar of crude attachment.
Stepping back to be the witness
Of a scene which I thought real,
Seeing that there is no difference,
Nothing left to beg or steal.
credits
from WHITE GODDESS,
released September 15, 2019
Marie O’Nette – vocals
Darren Anderson – acoustic guitar, electric bass, vocals, percussion
Alberto Avila Casas – electric guitar, electric bass
with
Javier Cantudo – drums
Paco Troya - bass
Recorded and mixed at SaiRam studios, Granada , Spain
White Goddess is a multi-national group based in Granada, Andalucia formed of Austrian singer Marie O`Nette, Spanish guitarist Alberto Avilla Casas and English singer-songwriter Darren Anderson.
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