Sibylle Baier

L'occasione di menzionare qui "Colour Green", l'unico disco di Sibylle Baier, ci viene data dalla sua (ri)pubblicazione in vinile da parte della American Dust lo scorso 22 giugno.

Su invito di Other Music, l'edizione in CD (edita dalla Orange Twin) entrò a far parte della nostra raccolta all'epoca della sua uscita (2006, ma le incisioni risalgono ai primi anni settanta).
Rimasi a dir poco meravigliato per ciò che andavo scoprendo e che non abbandona - ad anni di distanza - il lettore; un'artista pura che - come Vashti Bunyan prima di lei - aveva scelto il folk come modalità espressiva ma privilegiato la famiglia rispetto alla carriera musicale.

Christina Carter esprime perfettamente, come solo un'altro musicista può fare, il fascino senza tempo di questo disco:
"Each song is a masterpiece in and of itself in all four respects: lyrically, melodically, technically (guitar playing) and vocally. Lyrically each song joins the poetic and the narrative i.e. short story, in a way seldom achieved in English language songwriting. They have something in common with traditions that join sophisticated lyric with popular music e,g, Brazilian/Portuguese, French and Russian. Subtle, elegiac, but not sentimental; rhymes are fresh and not cloying yet also not eccentric (very hard combination to achieve). And despite being reflective, live in the moment, alive...the imagery is original, and psychologically charged...melodically complex yet penetratingly simple and unforced...the guitar playing is like a beautiful, perfectly proportionate chair, the structure which allows the whole of the song to sit in equilibrium. Inventive within the means of what makes dynamic sense. No wasted note and yet still with individual personality. A chair made by a master chairmaker...her voice is clear and without affectation or pretension, yet expressive. It sounds only like her, not like anyone else. And she has that 'thing' that is inexplicable: a certain singerly timbre which is not merely ornamental and cannot be acquired. It's natural and comes out of the inner nature of the artist...the emotion in her songs is held somewhat at a distance in order to be perceived more clearly, and yet the tone is not cold or empty...I think all of these things make her songs each a perfect masterpiece. I keep thinking of made things like wine, a meal of perfectly balanced textures, flavors, ingredients, the finest made furniture, etc....".

Davvero indispensabile.

(www.americandust.net)