Beatrice Antolini
Big Saloon

I discovered this album purely by chance; I found it by following the directions in a news item on the Baustelle website, which seems to be collaborating with this young and creative artist from Bologna on her first record, which in a sense represents a debut for me as well, as this is my first-ever review, despite having followed this site for a couple of years... but let's get to the album.

“Big Saloon” is the result of many experiments and “caustic melodies” born among keyboards, small organs, and many other varied musical instruments, when it wasn't yet conceivable to organize everything into a publishable record. These 13 tracks, indeed, are sometimes characterized by energetic rhythms (like the first three tracks Bread And Puppets, Lazy Jazy, and Topogò), other times by almost underwater melodies and atmospheres (Moved From A Town, Coca Cola Shirley Cannonball) and by slow and steady rhythms (Applebug And His Doll), but without ever falling into melancholy and obsessive sounds, also because they are strategically alternated with tracks that are somewhat cheerful and lighthearted (Hi! Goodbye!, Ri Ule Ule, or one-and-a-half-minute interludes like Brother’s Bone). The voice (which sings strictly in English) at times reminded me of Bjork, but I had to change my mind on some tracks, where it gains its personal expressiveness, very far from fixed patterns and beyond any kind of imitation.

An album where naturalness is very evident, and where there is no sort of coercion or attempt to fit into any musical stereotype, especially in the very free use of musical instruments, from the piano (present in almost all tracks) to guitars, passing through synthesizers, string, and wind instruments... in short, a bit of everything.

It is very difficult to identify at least one musical genre that influences this album, so I prefer not to mention any, also because I would risk contaminating every approach free from prejudice and expectations with this little work, small yet (lasting just over 30 minutes) beautiful and original, which I imagined, while listening, as a kind of journey/dream in a magical and multiform world, where the first sensations win over all rational forces, where ethereal colors matter and not shapes defined by contours.

This is all; I hope you liked my first review (despite listening to something completely different) and that you somehow manage to get this album.