Milenasong
Seven Sisters

Fortunately, there are still people who give away CDs. And there are also those who gift you their favorite one, the one they bought eagerly and enthusiastically, the one whose cardboard cover is imbued with an intense cigarette smoke smell, who knows how many you nervously smoked while listening to it.

"This is for October," you told me. But it was July and October seemed so far away, my curiosity didn't want to wait. I didn't like it, I set it aside. It was there in the drawer and among a thesis and various discographies listened to instead of studying, it resurfaced. I listened to it again recently without realizing what month it was, and at the end of the listening, I understood why it had to be in October.

Milenasong is a versatile artist, a painter and singer-songwriter of Croatian-Norwegian origins, who artistically grew up in Berlin. It's here that she conceived her debut album Seven Sisters, released in 2007. It consists of twelve tracks painted by a deep and vibrant voice on a slow and minimal acoustic folk background, streaked with electronics and measured loops. Guitar and banjo characterize a classic folk ballad in "Thirty"; "Lily Wyatt" is a charming acoustic pop track; electronic loops and reverberated classical guitar, an unusual but absolutely perfect combination, accompany in "Love Feel You Do" the intertwining of the voices of Milena and the Norwegian singer Tord Løvik; "How Ode", the most hypnotic track, is a sort of distorted and psychedelic electronic music box; and then more psych folk in "Standby".

Seven Sisters is an unusual but perfect fusion of classic acoustic and modern electronic elements, whose union has produced interesting, ethereal, and hypnotic sounds. It is enveloping, an autumnal and folktronica lullaby very far from my usual listening, yet it literally captivated me anyway.

This is my October.