anja lauvdal: farewell to faraway friends

Farewell to Faraway Friends finds Anja Lauvdal at her Wurlitzer, captured by two mics in the room, with no additional overdubs or edits. Her set of hushed, jazzy flourishes and pregnant pauses is so well realized that it's hard to believe they were improvised, while the "kitchen feel" of the room recording (as Marhaug describes it) enhances a sense of brittle intimacy. Much in the same way that Dominique Lawalrée imbued his ostensibly naive music with glimpses into a multifaceted inner life, Lauvdal explores an ocean of feeling through the most-humble components, transporting us through some alchemical act of emotional teleportation. Lauvdal avoids meandering flights of fancy, instead exposing a filigree level of detail and beauty through the cracks of her spartan recordings. There are no arbitrary found sounds, no sound design or overdubs, just Lauvdal and her Wurlitzer, occasionally singing at a barely perceptible volume in the background. If there's melancholy, it's not self-absorbed or effacing, but trapped behind sunny rays and poetic, romantic phrases. One of those effortlessly impactful records we've not been able to stop listening to for a while now, Farewell to Faraway Friends is apparently the first in an ongoing series. Here's hoping. Required listening if you're into Harold Budd, Loren Connors, Dominique Lawalrée, Robert Wyatt, and Vincent Gallo. Released as part of the Le Jazz Non series. Edition of 300 copies.