Sarah Louise – Deeper Woods

The universe is as big as the imagination that perceives it

The next horse you see will be dead
The next bones you see will be human
The next omen you see will be laughing

Have you considered a career in the protest business?

I gave up paranoia ages ago when I realised everybody was out to get me. Instead of being anxious about it, I decided to take it as a compliment.

Pain in the farce

Not a wolf in sheep’s clothing
but a wolf that’s eaten so many sheep
the wool is a permanent fixture

Seek and ye shall blind

I’ll happily wear a t-shirt that says “see you tomorrow”
shows off my optimist nature

Rebsie Fairholm – Mind the Gap

The distinction between madness and necessity is arbitrary, and always subject to change.

Oliver Cherer – The Myth of Violet Meek

Another dislocation brought me to the lair of the boxes, most of them virtual. In them, I see people, not really there but convinced they can’t escape. Well, it’s easy for me to say, I’m back where I started, so even though the pen is the same, the words are different, and now I’m sitting in judgement of virtual boxes. Can I do no better than this?

By the merest of phrasings, the picture changed – it is what it is, and suddenly I liked it and didn’t want it to change so I reached out my arms to hold on to the edges four. A couple walked past and then didn’t – I was blocking their view. In desperation, I tried to describe for them their picture so I didn’t have to let go, but they found this unsatisfactory and said they might as well have stayed at home like they’d been ordered.

So I looked again at the picture that I so cherished and noticed something different about it. Something new? Had it always been there or did the universe change while I was talking to the couple? Or did the act of exchange cause the change?

So I let go.

Ill Wicker – Untamed

Kitchen Cynics – Apardion

 

Karina Vismara – Casa del Viento

I’ve been reading Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits during my lunch breaks at work (a very good book, by the way, easy to get back into when I haven’t picked it up for a fortnight or more, but still with a phenomenal amount of depth to the narrative).Coincidentally, I’ve also discovered another South American person, this time a woman who plays guitar and sings excellent songs.

This is one of those really lazy ways of saying that I discovered a whole two artists based in South America and I think it’s a Thing. After all, it’s hardly the first time I’ve found artists from the continent that do good things to my soul (Jodorowsky, Borges, Os Mutantes, Coelho, Rakta… and they’re just the ones off the top of my head as I sit at the usual enquiry desk at work…) But actually, there is a similarity of atmosphere, in a way I cannot possibly put into words. (sidebar: does something exist if there isn’t a word for it?)

Karina Vismara is a singer-songwriter from Argentina who seems unreasonably young for one with such music, though I say that with admiration rather than envy. Her voice is strong and expressive, and her guitar playing is seriously good with some gorgeous passages of droney finger picking finding their way into the songs.

The opener, Tied up Tight actually puts me in mind somewhat of Led Zeppelin’s Battle of Evermore. Also you might want to consider Joni Mitchell. Most of the references I could think of (they always leave my head when I sit in front of a blank blog post) also date from the late 60s/ early 70s folk revival. And of course, she’s from the same country as the wonderful Juana Molina, who you know all about, obviously.