WISTFUL, ACOUSTIC & EXPANSIVE
by Happy Beckett
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour...
From "Auguries of Innocence" by William Blake
"Art and science cannot exist but in minutely organized particulars." ~ William Blake
"DEPARTURE ANGLE: The angle between the axis of the main lobe of an antenna pattern and the horizontal plane at the transmitting antenna. Synonym takeoff angle." ~ From the Atis Telecom Glossary 2000
Louise Fraser has found her departure angle from the world of techno in a guitar based album of wistful and perceptive songs about love and all its roadblocks and detours. Coming from a world of keyboards, it is apparent that Louise has kept up with string theory and kept close the lyrical simplicity that unlocks the doors of perception and waltzes into the heart.
With guitar, cello, bass, drumkit, an occasional organ and even an accordion at the fore, Ms. Fraser skips and waltzes along in the little words that stick and the sound that clicks. Don't worry. She is still at home with the effects box, and the synth. There are plenty of sounds for seasoning in minutely organized particulars from the heart of the machine. This self-disclosed "techno chick" has found her departure angle in the layered flurry of electronic gadgetry and chosen to take off into the wistful eternity of the deceptively simple.
Ghost Town has the sweet expansive sound of rhythmic poetry served on a bed of sculpted acoustic rock, and the ethereal warmth of a voice that will give your subconscious a hug and an occasional noogie. If you will allow yourself to float into her universe and adjust to the light, the deeper dazzle of small sounds like stars will fill your adopted sky. The stories in these songs have two feet on the ground, but they are reaching for the heavens.
A more complete review of Louise Fraser's "Ghost Town" can be read at BillySheppard23 on myspace.
