le blog pastallconcerns

    Judging by the look of her sweet and angelic face, you'd never think that the music January records could be so different from her good looks. You would never imagine how her sweet face could hide such pure though sad, comfortable and yet dark songs. Against all odds, her eyes aren't the mirror of her soul; they hide her fragility and hopes, her fear and inner beauty. In a way, she looks like and Hitchcockian character: pretty, but concealing what her real nature actually is. But she doesn't have to keep her songs away from us, as their simplicity and reality are so striking and moving. First of all, her songs bring you to places you would have never expected  her to take you to, to a world made of strange guitar sounds and reversed vocal parts, of harmony and suspense, hope and despair. She builds a world made of contradictions, and shes does it oh-so-well.

    This feeling of being in an unknown and particular place is conjured up as early as when you start playing the first tunes of Fallen: a slow guitar introduces January's reversed voice, which is already misleading. First, it sounds like a soprano voice, then goes to a sweet and sad murmur. Sounding experimental at first listen, the song reveals a kind of electro-folk mood, as the others do. The way January writes her songs seems to always work like this: under a folk sound is hidden some straight to the bone songwriting ability, a way to create a warm but desperate ambience. She creates melody with noises and her remarkable voice, and she sings in different registers. Sometimes whispering (the way she repeats the title word on Truth provides the whole song with a spinal melodic pattern), sometimes sounding like Portishead's Beth Gibbons (as on the chorus of  Por Favore), and most of the time sounding melancholic though warm in the mean time. Her voice suits every musical style she experiments with, from flamenco (Our Turn) to trip-hop (Pardon Me).

    Her voice also gives much sensuality to her songs, thus reminding you of her beauty. The Smell Of Your Love, sounding like Kylie Minogues Slow (three cheers for Emiliana Torrini), says it all. But this vocal beauty remains as desperate and sad as it is eerie. Here another contradiction can be pointed out: the beauty of her songs switches into sheer melancholy (as in Let Me), and makes her personality look more complex than what might have transpired at first listen. January then sounds very close to other tortured female singers, such as Beth Gibbons or P.J. Harvey (Pardon Me). She now becomes a part of those misunderstood musical actresses who inspire and move their listeners.

    This album is a rare collection of musical styles from Spanish music (Our Turn) to sad bossa-nova (A Morning), Satie-like Gymnopeadias (Faithful Feathers) and classical vocal music (Hallelujah). She uses those influences and makes them her own, she recreates an inner universe which she discloses piece by piece, bringing her purity and sadness to life. She builds a world made of aerial sounds, music and voices (Hallelujah), a kind of monochrome place the listener may revel in and  chill out to while discovering every hidden side of her work.

    All I can say is that I fell in love with January. I fell in love with her songs and music. And I know I won’t be the only one...