Liz Durrett
The Mezzanine

THE MEZZANINE

Listening to this album feels almost like you can smell the wood of the attic where it was composed, a mezzanine, indeed. The magic and the unfailing sense of security that this place can instill, along with the mystery and dark intimacy, slowly blossom as the notes float in the air, bare instruments flirt with Liz's sensual voice within a fragile and delicate, nocturnal and enveloping structure.

An attic as a place of memory, as a place of reflection and shelter, where ghosts reveal themselves in the form of fluid, innocent, and erotic love. "Mezzanine" is introspective and deep, warm and smoky, but above all, beautiful in a simple way without being trivial. At the age of 16, Liz received a guitar as a gift, Vic Chesnutt, her uncle, had given her a toy, the instrument that allowed her to write her music and show her soul to the world, a sort of altruistic nepotism, for the good of music.

One might liken Liz Durrett to Suzanne Vega, Mazzy Star, Natalie Merchant, or Cat Power, but it would be an affront to the sincerity and personality that permeates "Mezzanine", an alms to its chilling atmospheres. "Knives at the Wall" is a fresh and clear breeze that illuminates an ordinary morning in any place in the world, "Cup on the Counter" marks the path and experience, now revealing the future, "Mezzanine" a minute and 56 seconds of familial warmth that reconnects the past with the present, poignant, "In the Throes" is the sense of mystery, the misunderstood and the satisfied desire that finally appears understandable and luminous, "Silent Partner", the funereal piano paves the way to "Shivering Assembly", acoustic guitar and harmonica, Morriconian atmospheres stained by the Devics, "Creepyaskudzu" is languid and menacing, Chesnutt's keyboard caresses Liz's echo-laden voice, all very comfortable and calibrated.

A mature and sensitive album, close to each of us, wonderful in its sweet simplicity.

"In my attic there is an album, black and white photos, faces that look like me, lived life, gone, history that belongs to me, faded memories and clear melancholy"