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'I See a Sign Defined' 7"
(Pickled Egg Records, Egg 63)
"Glasgow's John Cavanagh (aka Phosphene) continues delving into the ranks of John Peel's
Dandelion label with this new release (previously he has recorded with Lol Coxhill).
Now he has connected with Dandelion's resident chanteuse, Bridget St John, for a lovely and
fascinating set of tunes. On 'I See a Sign Defined', Bridget takes the lead vocal and her
dark voice wraps elegantly around Cavanagh's arrangements.The flip features Glasgow trio,
Nalle, singing one of Bridget's signature tunes to near communal effect. What a nice
pairing" [John Dale, The Wire]
"Like uncovering a rarefied and precious heirloom from a forgotten age hidden in
cobwebs, dust and shyly hiding in the shadows of an old attic, ’See a sign defined’
is a beautifully bleak baroque folk styled nugget wrapped in oddly affecting Farfisa
(courtesy of Bill Wells) signatures and playfully crafted nursery room accents that
hypnotically combine to numbing pastel hued grandeur. Invested with a deep sense of
introspection brought about by St John’s trembling timbre, it informs an eerie
spectral majesty eliciting a message of hope a bit like a less cosmically inclined
and bruised on the inside Stereolab seeking solace and relocating their space age
bachelor pad to the homely and cosy confines of a tumble down woodshed. Replete with
dream like soft psyche undercurrents and a tingling noire-esque classicism, brought
to bear by Isobel Campbell’s cello arrangements ’See a Sign Defined’ is all at once
tearfully touching, tender and timeless - to be handled with care. Over on the flip
the favour is repaid in kind as members of Nalle shimmy up to Cavanagh for a
deliciously crooked retread of Bridget St John’s ’Ask Me No Questions’.
A gorgeously disorientating slice of freeform campfire folk that creaks, caresses,
ebbs and flows with a particular fetching and distractive air tripped tenderly
with wafts of harmonic interplays overlain across flurries of shimmering acoustics
which we suspect fans of both the Virgin Passages and Animal Collective will no
doubt lap up by the bucket load" [Mark Barton, Losing Today]
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UK: £3.00
EU: €5.50
US: $8.50
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By Chance Upon Waking
CD
(Pickled Egg Records, Egg 57CD)
"Everything comes together on Nalle's debut to produce some of the best music I've heard in
years. The instrumentation is wonderful and Tuulikki's voice, which falls somewhere between
Bjork and Austria's Gustav, are absolute perfection. I can't get over just how amazing this
record is. Nalle's debut is easily the best thing I've heard in 2006 thusfar, and I reckon
it's going to be hard for anything to come close to it. The highest of recommendations" [
Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis]
"Nalle is the Finnish word for teddy bear or little bear and as this
gatefold card cover is adorned with Hanna Tuulikki's exquisite drawings
of bears, trees and more, I'm sold on it at once! Nalle play an exotic selection of
stringed and percussive instruments in a
style that's tinged with hints of North African, Eastern & Northern European
musics. You might call this "folk", although that falls short of describing
the beguiling noise they make together. Pinning Hanna's voice down in a few
words is the hardest part of all... at once she can sound childlike and as
though she's a conduit for some ancient force from the depths of a stone-age
well! Nalle have something unique to offer. That's a rare thing and this
album is one to cherish" [John Cavanagh, BBC Radio Scotland]
"Though this tripped-out trio are based in Glasgow, their sound is quite
otherworldly. Vocalist Hanna Tuulikki sounds like Björk’s little sister baked on
some kind of pleasant and slightly scary psychedelic pixie dust. She also reminds
me a bit of Joanna Newsom, she plays kantele, and flutes. Aby Vulliamy adds viola,
and Chris Hladowski, bouzouki, and clarinet. They also make very different music
together in Scatter and The One Ensemble of Daniel Padden. Here they make sounds
that recall Six Organs of Admittance, Islaja, John Fahey, Faun Fables, and a few
others. Has the feel of some sort of magical sacred folk music from several
different regions of the world played at once; while being very personal and
utterly idiosyncratic" [George Parsons, Dream Magazine]
"Like crystalline icicles falling to terra firma, Nalle’s music is haphazard but
startling and naturally beautiful. Using kantele, flutes, viola, bouzouki and
clarinet they perform an elfin, itinerant avant-gypsy-folk. A hint of Stina Nordenstam’s
delicateness enwraps Diamanda Galas abrasiveness in Hanna Tuulikki’s haunting,
astonishing vocal. Appearing from hedgerows, skipping and singing in England and
Finnish, this is often music of long isolation suddenly set free" [The Vanity Project]
"Nalle works their way through a
stunning amalgam of folk, psyche, improv and drone. Slow-strumming,
madrigal-esque folk mutations, somewhat in the vein of Fursaxa, long notes
hanging suspended in the air like mean, mystical old albatrosses. A
masterclass in drone, teasing blissful feedback textures from bowed bouzouki,
clarinet, and a fine array of pedals" [Ben Haggar, Plan B]
'Sunne Song'
(MP3)
'Iron's Oath'
(MP3)
'New Roots' (MP3)
Download
By Chance Upon Waking
 from eMusic
Listen to By Chance Upon Waking
on Last.fm
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UK: £10.00
EU: €15.00
US: $18.00
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