WHEN THIS WAS THE FUTURE

Lisa o Piu's debut studio album 'When This Was the Future' released to mixed reviews in 2009. On the one hand some critics and fans praised the reverence and enthusiasm with which the band embraced a psych folk tradition that began in the sixties with groups like the Incredible String Band and was drowned out with the emergence of FM radio and louder electric music as the seventies wore on. Other reviewers panned the band for what they perceived as a pastiche approach that centered more on trying to imitate their parents' record collections than on producing something new and innovative. Both are probably correct to a certain extent, but in the end music is all about personal taste and preference anyway so que sera sera.

There really should be no argument though that bandleader Lisa Isaksson is a talented songwriter and a decent musician, and with this initial studio release she and her band mates at a minimum succeeded in adding yet another album on a pile of archetypical psych folk recordings that has been slowly growing since Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer had their fateful meeting with the upstart American producer Joe Boyd way back in 1965. On that point Piu will live on as at least a side note of psych folk history no matter what they do from this point forward.

Isaksson has been compared to the American Linda Perhacs in both her lyrical and vocal approach, and that assessment is for the most part a fair one. Both wove poetic lyrical passages that varied between introspective and abstract, into mostly languid, highly acoustic compositions. Piu have the advantage of nearly forty years on Perhacs though, and have clearly spun more than a few classic psych folk recordings to give them inspiration. Perhacs was an original with little to guide her back in the dawn of the seventies decade. Piu also don't shy away from a little AC current, weaving in bits of electric guitar and bass and plenty of studio tinkering along with the requisite folk tools such as acoustic guitar, flute, glockenspiel, violin, harp and zither. There are bits of mellotron here and there as well, although I'm assuming this is likely because the studio happened to have one more than it is a mainstay of the group's sound.

All compositions are originals, with the opening "Cinnamon Sea" serving notice at the outset that anyone looking for something other than a traditionalist reading of psych folk should either adjust their expectations or look elsewhere. The basis of the song is a laconic acoustic guitar riff that gets swallowed at times by layers of spacey vocals and luscious flute passages. I'm going out on a limb by stating that Ms. Isaksson's vocals remind me at times of Kate Bush. Before readers gasp and guffaw I'll caveat that by saying Isaksson hasn't the range, the imagination or the star power of Ms. Bush, but there are the occasional vocal phrasing or instrumental transition that hearken back to some of Bush's finer eighties material. This is most noticeable on "The Party" and "Two", both Isaksson compositions that consist of an almost theatrical instrumental arrangement that seem to serve little purpose other than to act as a stage from which Ms. Isaksson ascends to offer her vocal finery. "The Party" is an almost maddeningly mellow tune, but vocally this may be the best on the album, while "Two" is at comparatively sprightly and bright, with Isaksson indulging in some of the same sort of vocal overdubbing and effects that Bush was also wont to do in her day.

The band has a few weak spots that may become troubling in the future though. While nearly all the lyrics and arrangements were penned by Isaksson, there are two tracks where she had some help (guitarist David Svedmyr on "Älvdans vid Kolarkojan" and fellow Swedish folkster Jennie Ståbis on "Forest Echo"). This is a bit concerning because those are also two of the weaker tracks on the album, particularly the interaction between the vocalists and the instrumentation, which is both cases feels just slightly awkward. One has to wonder if the band can sustain themselves should Isaksson hit a bout of writer's block, or if personalities develop as a result of her dominant role in the group.

In any case this is a lovely album, although one should not expect to be swept away to any place other than where it purports to go, which is down a mossy forest path back to a time when there were still a lot of hippy artists running around barefoot and making naïve music that somehow still managed to find an audience. A bit tougher crowd today, but worth a listen if you are the sort who can still be distracted with a wave of nostalgia at the whiff of patchouli or the feel of a hand-formed clay pot. Three stars for those folks and a polite 'move along, nothing to see here' for the rest of you.

peace