Laura Gibson
Goners

After a concert at Festsaal-Kreuzberg, one of the most beautiful venues to enjoy a concert in Berlin, I respectfully approached Laura Gibson and, purchasing her album "Goners" at the stand (I had already devoured it in streaming, but the physical purchase signifies the final and eternal bond with the music) after complimenting her on the concert just finished, I explained what had led me to listen to this record. THE COVER ART.

Rarely have I found a cover that so well represents the essence of an album or an album that so well represents the atmosphere of a photograph. A (wolf) dog at the window in a dark atmosphere, yet somehow full of warmth. In the brief conversation with the artist, I expressed my appreciation for the image. Laura explained to me it was a photo by a Lithuanian girl, Katrina Krepule, a photographer who does many interesting things centered on her native country.

I widened my eyes and said: "I will be in Riga in a couple of weeks" and Laura: "Okay, would you like to bring a vinyl to Katrina?" And I, "Sure!" I get in touch with the Latvian photographer and ask if it's possible to have a print of the photograph. We agree and meet in Riga, where we have lunch together, I give her the vinyl, she gives me the print (I pay for it, of course, because art and artists must always be paid), and after wandering through the remote countryside in the suburbs of the Latvian capital, we go to eat, in a very punk-rock manner, at a deserted Soviet restaurant on the day Latvia's liberation was celebrated.

Since then, these ten twilight compositions, always balancing between piano, strings, and acoustic guitar, have become memories of four days of cold happiness in Latvia. And Latvia seemed to me a modern, dark, and delicate place just like this work. Somehow, Laura Gibson gave me the music I needed for a journey, at the right time. And the journey, besides being physical, was mental.

The picture of the wolf dog at the window now watches over my turntable and is one of the images I love most. One day, if I live, I will be 60 years old and, looking at it, I will return with my mind to that album, that concert, and that journey.