Straf Vocal Strings – Tread Softly
Something uniquely different comes with world music not driven by electric, acoustic guitars or banged out on pianos but violas, violins & cello. There are 12 reasons to Tread Softly (Dropped Oct 23 – USA/Oct 9 – Europe/Kakafon Records/49:03) through this Swedish quartet’s recording produced by Henrik Cederblom & including an interesting cover of Billie Holiday’s classic “Don’t Explain.”
The music comes wrapped in classical draperies, folk ribbons, improvisation & contemporary shadings & Medieval emollients. There’s even music to texts by poet W. B. Yeats among others. But the vocals, while highly polished & some sung in Swedish still manage to penetrate the ears with a richness of the plucked melodies. The vocals & instrumentation blend in an airy ethereal landscape. This isn’t Abba pop music or even Fairport Convention folksiness. There’s a touch of early Paul Winter Consort in the performance & the string application renders much of the music a woody, rural & smokey textured feeling.
For comparisons when the melodies reach down into a near-Medieval type of technique, the passages take on an Amazing Blondell fluidity. More upbeat, sung in English “This Is How We Walk On the Moon,” has indulging qualities. Catchy, stylistic & the vocalizing both male & female with warm violin, cello & viola sawing away with contrasting notes is invigorating. There is a repetition of the performance that keeps it well-postured in an antiquated pop sensibility. Works intelligently.
More musically intense is “The Awakening of Elza.” It explores a classical approach to a folky unity. Overlapping vocals, with differing tones & almost an operatic cum Broadway musical breadth held together by the Medieval distinguished notes. It’s actually ingenious. Fortunately, the whole production doesn’t take on complicated bombastic Gilbert & Sullivan-type production.
Billie Holiday’s classic “Don’t Explain” isn’t slow, dark & melancholy as Ms. Holiday’s. Here, the blend of sophisticated voices takes a more delicate anticipation path. Though the music maintains its somber moody aesthetic the female voices drizzle with a spirited tone. They suggest that they are “blue” now but will get over it.
Swedish vocals on “Skymning I Tallinn” has a glum atmospheric carnival gypsy touch. The playing is exquisite. The male vocals are Brecht-Weill mysterious while the female vocals are more operatic/classical angelic. String-wise “Himlajorden” has an “Eleanor Rigby” (Beatles) chamber-music refinement. “Memories Look at Me” is another English lyric piece. The medieval sound returns & it works in this frame. Delicacy, is this band’s power. The LP is for selective tastes but if interested in something of a rare beauty, this will score high.
Highlights – “This Is How We Walk On the Moon,” “The Awakening of Elza,” “Don’t Explain,” “Skymning I Tallinn,” “Memories Look at Me,” “Brooppning, “Himlajorden” & “Tread Softly.”
Musicians – Tobias Edvardson (vocals/viola), Asa B. Johansson (vocals/violin), Francis Shaughnessy (vocals/violin) & Sanna Kallman (vocals/cello) with Michael Andersson (drums/percussion).
A 12pp stitched lyric insert is included. Color image from the Straf website gallery. CD @ https://www.straf.se/ & https://www.hemifran.com/artist/Str%C3%A5f%20Vocal%20Strings/