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.
No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the worlds storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heavens glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.
O God within my breast.
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life -- that in me has rest,
As I -- Undying Life -- have power in Thee!
Vain are the thousand creeds
That move mens hearts: unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,
To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by Thine infinity;
So surely anchored on
The steadfast Rock of immortality.
With wide-embracing love
Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.
Though earth and man were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.
There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou -- Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.
-- Emily Bronte
credits
from WHITE GODDESS,
released September 15, 2019
Marie O’Nette – vocals
Darren Anderson – acoustic guitar, bass, percussion
Alberto Avila Casas – electric guitar
Javier Cantudo – drums
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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