Danielle De Picctto - Deliverance [Louder Than War - 2019]American-born-now-Berlin-based artist Danielle De Picctto may be known to some for her planning and implementation of the first Berlin Loveparade with her former friend Dr. Motte. But Since 2006 she has been married to Alexander Hacke of the Einstürzende Neubauten, and both have been sonically active solo as well as an artistic couple. Her newest (solo) album Deliverance is a kind of concept album, and that's what really drew me in. The ten predominantly electronic compositions on Deliverance are built around dark and melancholic floating walls of sound, merged with melodic textures, & other instrumental layers. These soundscapes are accompanied by cryptic and very unique lyrics themed around human beings and thier role in the world.
The opener track "Et Arripuerit", consists of crackling electronics, a very memorable, constantly repeating guitar riff and a yearning violin. Through this melancholic soundscape, Danielle questions the meaning of life and chooses little metaphors to raise the question of the bigger picture. Another great example of the album is the 5th track "Dancing in the rain". It is a bit more positive but structured similarly: Electronic textures and sampled sounds of noise, a delicately pumping bass in the background mixed with subtle amplified objects and violins. All these elements form a small poppy piece where she sings over the top in an angelic way.
The following track "My Secret Garden" is again working with a fragile mix of electronic field recordings and a yearning violin- the feeling of sadness and fragility is deeply felt here. On other songs like "Spring" and "Die Wüste in meiner Seele", the concept remains similar: Different tonal structures and noise elements are slowly building up over electronically generated layers of drones. In the background, we have a guitar and melancholic violin elements building up some very dark & sinister soundscapes. Incidentally, these two pieces are only available with the digital release. The song "Sehnsucht" is a subtle composition of different samples, harp- and trumpet-like sounds, a distorted guitar drone, and a moving bass.
The core-pieces on the album tells us a dystopian story of a futuristic world full of electronics, that lacks little emotion and humanity... Or is it our world today? The lyrics leave a lot to one's only personal interpretation.
For me, this touching, thought-provoking album has become a dreamlike and wonderful little masterpiece that I’ve played more & more over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, the limited vinyl version released on Louder Than War is sold out. But I can highly recommend getting the digital version via their Bandcamp site. Jan Warnke
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