Nalle - "The Siren's Wave"

Nalle - "Alice's Ladder" (Locust 2008)

Nalle – The Siren’s Wave / Locust

Last night, with a head thoroughly blotted with congestion and cold medicine, I drifted mercifully to sleep watching The Sword of Doom in an unfamiliar apartment. I lost consciousness at Ryunosuke's height of confidence as a ronin, emotionlessly carrying out assassinations and ignoring his mistress and their baby son. When I came to sometime later, the samurai was frantically fighting off shadows, his formerly commanding poise slashed by his own evil sword/soul. It was a surreal moment thanks to my clouded consciousness and only exemplified by listening to The Siren's Wave on the trip home. The Glasgowian trio Nalle crafts a sound that is not solely inspired by their Scottish surroundings nor many of their contemporaries. While traditional European folk and the buzzing drone of the Great Highland bagpipe are certainly prominent influences, Eastern modal elements are just as prevalent. The music is both unsettling with its odd tunings and harsh pitches and hypnotic with its fluid drone; much like Okamoto's samurai film with its visceral and almost absurdly violent imagery paired with the mesmeric cinematography and pace. The contrast makes for a much more interesting experience.

Nalle is three multi-instrumentalists: visual artist Hanna Tuulikki, The Family Elan’s Chris Hladowski and Aby Vulliamy. For their second full-length as a band – and their first for Locust Music – the trio entered the studio with John Cavanagh, whose collection of analog electronics and recording devices have helped further develop their avant-folk sound. The added instrumentation provides more of a definable structure for the lyrical voices (flutes, violin, bouzouki, Tuulikki’s captivating vocals) to experiment overtop. The austerity of their prior release is replaced with a large palette of autumnal colors, and the recording is more intriguing for it.

Now I use “definable structure” loosely, as each of the six tracks has little to do with traditional song arrangements. A continuously swelling and patient drone is used as the foundation of each song creating a sensation not unlike being on a small drifting sea vessel. Tuulikki’s pitch-gliding voice rocks back in forth between gentle waves of accordion, cello, harmonium, oud, clarinet, valve oscillators and whatever else they can muster up with a somber tone or a buzzing output. This meditative drone created with mostly acoustic instrumentation is what immediately sends the mind to Eastern Asian associations. And when Tuulikki’s voice is matched with a recorder, flute, violin or other instrumentation of similarly high pitch, the influence of Japanese Gagaku becomes most apparent. It’s a simultaneously odd and elegant sound that will more or less dissuade most Western listeners on first listen, but given time, the harmonic interplay becomes very inviting.

“Young Light” is the best example of this Japanese-tinged experimentation. Hladowski improvises patiently with his bouzouki as Tuulikki jaggedly strums the metallic strings of a kantele. Interjection of cello further deepens the loose string arrangement as the song morphs from a Lichens-like meditation to an almost agitated display of exotic free jazz, but always grounded in Eastern tones. “Secret of the Seven Sirens” though couldn’t sound further away geographically. Between the group vocal sing-alongs, violin and flute interplay, loosely strummed acoustic strings, and eventual handclap enhanced pace, it sounds decisively European. The most accessible of the tracks, “Alice’s Ladder” also exists in this vein, just in more of a compact and focused presentation. Names like Joanna Newsom and Fursaxa come to mind, but neither really captures Nalle’s implacable exoticness.

When I first listened to The Siren’s Wave, I wasn’t particularly impressed. Locust is renown for their keen avant-folk ear, and Nalle’s sound just wasn’t that unexpected. But really, it just took the right circumstances for the nuances and idiosyncrasies of the album to make sense. They are weaving such distant cultures and so many different exotic instruments together that a cursory listen will only leave a confused stare on your face. Consider it a lesson in patience, though our contemporary listening habits will make Nalle’s work an uphill battle. And if you still can’t quite get a grasp on the record, let me suggest cold medicine and samurai movies, it worked for me.