I’m convinced there’s no better setting in Cardiff to fully experience ye olde wild-eyed folk/psych/free-rock magick than the Norwegian Church Arts Centre on a sunny summer evening. Rangda’s recent show for Swn was utterly transformative, beautiful exploratory out-music with a great sound mix to a backdrop of a slowly setting sun pouring through the high stained-glass windows. There’s two more Swn shows at the venue this summer, so pray for the weather to continue; the first sees free-folk questers NALLE make their Cardiff debut.
With roots in sprawling Glaswegian improv collective Scatter, Nalle’s two albums to date (new one ‘Wilder Shores Of Love’ arrives soon) take the abstract, unrestricted approach of their old group and combine it with more traditional folk melody, with Hanna Tuulikki’s soaring, untethered vocals to the fore. Nalle is Finnish for ‘teddy bear’, and bears and other creatures feature prominently in ex-Glasgow School of Art student Tuulikki’s sleeve art and lyrics.
Sometimes a childlike whisper reminiscent of Bjork or her out of Múm, sometimes full-lunged and powerful like Yoko Ono or echoing Lavinia Blackwall of fellow Glaswegians Trembling Bells, Tuulikki’s voice may be divisive but works brilliantly amongst the clutter of percussion, viola, guitar and traditional Finnish instrumentation. Part drone, part folk, part experimental jumble, this will sound great ringing around the Norwegian Church. Get there.
SWN presents…
NALLE
& support TBC
Norwegian Church Arts Centre, Cardiff Bay
Monday 19th July 8pm
£5.00 doors
“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]
“Nalle work 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]
http://www.pickled-egg.co.uk/nalle.htm
http://www.myspace.com/nallemusic
