PETER HOLY - Jänner
(3”, Nightpass Handmade)
Peter Holy is another part of the lose circle of
artists, musicians and (hopefully) friends around Tupolev, one of
the major musical surprises from Austria last year. And like his colleague
Lukas Scholler (and I’d like to mention them all here over and over again)
he explores yet another angle of the musical universe they are carving out
for themselves. With Tupolev the central focus of the music is about texture
and development. Lukas
Scholler’s noise and ambient music focuses closer on the aspect
of pure sound. Holy takes the central bone structure of the songs in the
Tupolev canon, strips them down even further and cares about the evolving of
atmosphere from the most basic sounds, chords and rhythms. The arrangements
range from sparse to not so sparse. Background noises and involuntary noises
of the instruments are used to add edges and points to the recordings. So
much that chord changes seem to go unnoticed, breaks and bridges sneak by
the listener and tempi modulation seem like a spur of the moment idea or a
soon blown away afterthought.
What remains is a constantly audible, basic piano that
leads the songs and opens rooms and doorways for some drums, celli and not a
lot more like some, guitar whistling and tape noise maybe. Except, of
course, for Holy’s vocals. I dare not call it singing, because
caterwauling is a more fitting term, but it is also a fitting term for the
dark, sombre and mostly painful atmosphere these songs conjure. It defintely
reminds me of Will
Oldham, not only in sound but also in the emotional quivering and
staggering that speaks so much for the pain and anguish the singer /
songwriter is feeling. Now that is a compliment, that is pretty large to
live up to, I guess. A make or break sort of thing to say, because
expectations by readers get so high that the artist fears a lot of
unnecessary disappointment (I have had that before.) but what is there to
do, if that is what the truth is. As far as singers with deeply emotionally
touching singing styles go, with their own unique vocal style and the
ability and originality to use it in different ways, there is not much today
between Anthony and Will Oldham.
Anyway, singing is not the main point on “Jänner”
(transl. “january”). Like the cold and grey month that starts off each
year, the seven songs on this little CD own the feeling of something not
happening. Are the songs about lost love or broken hearts? About someone
bemoaning that he sent his lover away and now she is gone? Who knows. In
this atmosphere and style Holy could be singing about the joys of working in
the garden and it would feel like he was lost in a state of emotional
exhaustion and despair that are usually only that visible in the great
novels of Dostojevski. The almost chamber music like arrangement and
especially the very sombre and earnest tonality of the music adds to the
impression of deep impact to the soul and mind.
“Nothing to say when we are speaking / nothing to do
in the meantime” sings Holy on “You noticed”; an existential depth not
easily poured into simple words and a few notes and reaching the spiritual
depth and darkness of the early recordings of The Black Heart
Procession or something that is still waiting in the cellars of
constellation records but hasn’t been released yet because it is just too
depressing. Interestingly though, the final effect is uplifting, as it is
with all good dark and depressing music. An earnestness and melancholic
pondering to be behold with glimmering eyes.
And yes, that is a handmade cd-cover / packaging made
of some fabric.
