Opening track Opalbell is an atmospheric dreamlike track like a less aggressive Swan Lake (the band not the ballet), that gathers its tranquil melodies into a rousing march led by Rikard Linder’s drumming. Ida Peterson Hallmén’s vocal is soft and ethereal, whilst multi-instrumentalist Olle Bilius provides vivid and bewitching guitar, bass, wurlitzer and percussion alongside a Midlake-like backing vocal, in fact the whole thing feels like an inverted Young Bride, but one that transforms gloriously as it reaches its conclusion into crashing waves of sound, Bilius howling ‘Somewhere’ as if shipwrecked in a storm.
Calisota is primarily the work of Bilus, writing the lyrics and music, a member of the Swedish band Jeniferever and there are shades of that group’s ambient post-rock leanings on this three track EP. Pine Grove inparticular is a lilting Mogwai-like tune, Ida Peterson Hallměn providing a playful, innocent dancing piano amongst an ever more pulsing drum-line that battles with whispered, distant vocals and screaming clatters of sound.
Final track Hearts of the Yukon finds Bilus delivering a breathy vocal over shuffling percussion and baroque keys, building towards a turn into a skittering jazzy style as he wonders ‘How’s a kid supposed to know what is right, if all he’s told is wrong?’ with a similar fragility to Sparklehorse. As synths growl and grow and the piano’s twinkling melody grows with urgency in part thanks to the layers of spacey vocals and fuzzy bass the track skirts tentatively around exploding into a magnificent proggish finale, though it stops short with a somewhat cheesy whisper of ‘Strong enough’ and instead ends on a pensive, sombre note.
A evocative and intricate record from a band potentially named after the fictional American state where Duckburg (home to Scrooge McDuck) is located.
[Rating:4]
