Marianne Nowottny - Illusions of the Sun
(Camera Obscura)
I like random encounters. So there I am at Terrastock 5, music geeking away, hurrah. On the second day I'm wandering around some of the vending tables and I see... dolls. Lots and lots and lots of dolls. I blink and I see books as well, lots of them. And some CDs, and a slight young woman apparently selling them all. I figure it's an omen, because the dolls are all pretty cool, and I probably should have picked one or two up (you laugh, maybe, but having two Opus dolls to this day counts for something, I figure).
Said young woman was, unless I was very wrong, Marianne Nowottny, and I picked up her double CD Manmade Girl. One of the weirdest and most wonderful listens I'd heard in a while, because she sounded strangely sepulchral, almost on the verge of weeping, but it wasn't really sad music at all. It was strange, elusive, not per se avant garde but not really conventional songs, melodies so minimal or tweaked in the arrangements that they almost sounded like open ended recitations. In terms of the "sensitive young woman at a keyboard" semi-pseudo genre, this busted things wide open, more like Nico at her harmonium than Vanessa Carlton at her piano and all over MTV. But there wasn't Nico's chills, more a mysterious, unsettled breathiness, a sense of oddity that almost suggested that if anyone was going to be a kindred spirit, it might as well be Jandek.
This EP—seven songs and a video clip—mostly consists of re-recordings of past songs now made even odder and more compelling in spades. I like how it sounds almost like one stumbled on a weird-ass recital and are invited to stay, even as Nowottny sings about favorite monsters and suddenly turns on a dime from drift to swooping, stabbing croon and coo. The use of Arabic inspired melodies at points is even more of a reason to listen, a combination that's often truly unique. As a fine bonus, there's a video of her at a Washington DC performance in what looks like an art gallery, delivering cool versions of "Panopticon" and "Barely Nearly" among others. Realizing that such a strong voice comes from someone barely out of high school just means that there could be many more CDs to come—and I'm already looking forward to them.
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