Album of the month : April 2002
EPHEMERA (N) :
" Balloons and Champagne "
( Ephemera )
" Balloons": colourful and lighter than air. " Champagne": fresh, sparkling and euphorizing.. No title could be more accurate than this one to reflect Ephemera's music.
Coming to us after Kings Of Convenience's " Quiet Is The New Loud" and Sondre Lerche's " Faces Down", the third output from this Bergen girlie three-piece adds another testimony - possibly the most beautiful one - to the richness and vitality of Norway's new music scene. Halfway between Kings Of Convenience's new folk and Sondre Lerche's soft rock, the three girls of Ephemera ( Christine, Inger Lise and Jannicke) all sing, play and compose with an amazing talent. You won't often find voices like those: it's the sound of raindrops, the sound of waves lapping, the sound of soft wind in the leaves. Think of Stina Nordenstam ( without the dour attitude). Think of Hope Sandoval ( minus her usual haughty weariness)... but there's more than just this: there is also a smile in these voices, a warmth, a kindness, a natural empathy for the world around. When they soar together, you feel just like listening to the songs of the Sirens, ready to follow them anywhere anytime.
Of course, all this wouldn't work if the music was not so good. To find suchlike pieces of sheer crystal pop, you have to go back as far as the 60's, when Simon & Garfunkel delivered some of their most beautiful gems ( Scarborough Fair, America ). Yes, the melodic quality is that high: Last Thing, Balloons and Champagne ( the song), Hey ( Nanana) or Air are all equally wonderful, delicate and understated. On Bye, a pleasant bossa-nova swing underlines the gentle melody. Come around proves that Jannicke, if not as prolific as her two colleagues, is by no means less talented, while the closing track If I'm Still Your Girl builds up gracefully on bare acoustic guitar, sparse piano tinklings and euphorizing vocal harmonies. But my favourite song is perhaps the most simple: Blame shoots straight to the heart, a subdued, quivering duet in which Inger Lise teams up with Sister Sonny's singer Pedro Carmona-Alvarez over some simplistic guitar chords, distant uncanny noises, out of tune player-piano, and ethereal backing vocals.
The arrangements, by the way, are perfect throughout : rich and inventive, but also blessed with a welcome " less is best" restraint. Everything here is displayed by little touches. Light, just light... like the balloons of the album's title, or the slender insect that gives its name to the band. It could easily turn mellifluous or glossy but the girls avoid that trap by adding on each track quirky sonic tricks that tingle your ear: It's a train-sounding percussion on Last Thing, a funny synthetic buzz punctuating the gorgeous melody on the title-track, the cheerful synth whistling on Oh Yeah! or those Notwist-like snaps crackles and pops in Hey ( Nanana) and Helicopter.
Therefore, it's no use to resist: just surrender ! Spring has come and this is the perfect soundtrack to fall in love again.
EPHEMERA: