Album of the month :
November 2002
NICOLAI DUNGER (S) :
" Tranquil isolation "
( Dolores/ Virgin )
" .... With the amazing creative force that Nicolai Dunger posseses ( he's reported to have well over a hundred finished songs), it's anyone's guess how far he can go in expanding the medium of popmusic". Taken from Nicolai Dunger's 1998 " First Born Track" press-release, this quote looked - at the time - like typical press-officer exaggeration. The follow up of the story has since proven that it was nothing but the truth. In less than two years - between december 2000 and september 2002 - Dunger has released five full-length albums ( 2 CDs and 3 vinyl LPs), becoming a serious contender for the " Frank-Zappa-Churn-Out" award. A remarkable achievement considering that Dunger always manages to make quantity rhyme with quality, and that he never takes the same path twice.
Far from the epic numbers in the Van Morrison vein that characterized last year's " Soul Rush", " Tranquil Isolation" finds our former soccer-player in a quiet and rustic mood that suits him perfectly. The album title evokes the lone Kentucky mansion where these songs have been recorded: a big white wooden house, official HQ of the Oldham brothers crew. Will Oldham ( red bearded and in blue overalls), his younger brother Paul, Peter Townsend and Jessica Billey form a deluxe backing-band for long-time fan Dunger. They all pose at dusk, in front of a freshly reaped field on the digipack photographs, giving through that pastoral imagery a fairly good idea of what's inside the package.
" Tranquil Isolation" showcases Dunger's music at its most simple, honest and true. A couple of acoustic guitars, an upright bass, drums stroked with brushes, sometimes a restrained piano or a whining fiddle: real talent doesn't need much more. And when a perfect harmony reigns between players who obviously are all on the same wavelength, the magic operates in full. In such a favorable context, Dunger's music gets an intensity and an emotion rarely reached before. Hundred Songs sounds like a timeless folk classic coming down through ages. First Runaway adds gospel influences over bare piano-chords and nice guitar licks, while the addictive Hey Mama and the electric Me, Ray and JR speed up the pace without losing any of the album's handcrafted quality. The unadorned beauty of Ol' Lovers outshines them all though. Underlined with a wobbling violin and Will Oldham's touching off-tempo backing vocals, its shambling melody goes straight to the heart and stays here forever. Along the way, Dunger paints a sensitive picture of his Old Nanny, delivers another highlight with a superlative Tribute to Tim Hardin ( the fourth in a series which already features Chet Baker, Nick Drake and Robert Wyatt), and even gives a nod in the direction of his native country by covering a traditional Swedish number ( which surprisingly sounds like Jeux Interdits played off-key).
Benefiting from a no-frills production that favours intimacy, warmth and spontaneity, " Tranquil Isolation" gives the listener the feeling of an evening spent with old friends jamming together by the fireplace. Outside, frost draws geometrical figures on the window-panes. Insensible to the music, Ranger the dog sleeps quietly on the sofa. The sweet smell of a cooking pie comes from the kitchen door. You'd wish moments like these never come to end.
NICOLAI DUNGER :
LABEL:
http://www.doloresrecordings.com/