Francesca Lago
Siberian Dream Map

Francesca Lago, perhaps you might remember her (no, this is not an episode of The Simpsons!) for an album released in '97, or more likely not, given the long hiatus between that and the next installment, the EP The unicorn in 2009.
She debuted singing in Italian, but Lago has always written and sung in English, so we find her here in the dimension that suits her best. And it is a successful album, this "Siberian Dream Map," released on On The Camper Records, dreamy folk with delicate rock infusions that make it a nighttime soundtrack for those who love to wander with their thoughts.

The tracks have a solid structure, and Francesca's voice never overshadows the other instruments; it is a work in balance between the biting cello of Zeno Gabaglio, the rhythmic section of Francesco Miccolis and Marco Ferrara, the guitar skillfully handled by the singer herself. The references? A Suzanne Vega of the post-era, a PJ Harvey in love with Northern Europe, music with roots in the past but futuristic upon listening, as if it were written tomorrow.

The band shows enviable cohesion in all the tracks of the album, so much so that choosing the best ones is just a matter of mood: an energetic Leech, the single Slapstick (check out the excellent video) that explores truly convincing psycho-trip-hop hypotheses, folkish legacy that warms the heart like Raised by the aliens, lullabies to ward off darkness like To the wild, or else energetic bursts of untamed electricity like Bad dream. The positive news is that such songs do not age, even though they inevitably bring to mind a lot of alternative rock from the '90s (the early dEUS?), the negative news is that this dream map might go unnoticed, not following any trend but rather a path of footprints in the forest of our increasingly less discerning earbuds.