Tara Jane O'Neil
Peregrine
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Tara Jane O'Neil
Peregrine
Quarterstick, 2000
RiYL: Cat Power, Sonora Pine/Retsin, Cowboy Junkies, Nick Drake |
O'Neil -- who played bass in Rodan, was one half of Retsin, and sang in The Sonora Pine -- has the charm of a country girl and the phrasing of sophisticated soul-jazz singer (don't laugh: think Sade). The languid atmosphere and swinging rhythms of "A City In The North," "Bullhorn Noon" and "1st Street" are rich in musical harmony as well as psychological depth. These are accessible compositions that can appeal to a much wider audience than the one granted by Sonora Pine's more indie-oriented rock.
O'Neil's program is more ambitious. The quiet fairy tale of "Sunday Song" has a trance-like quality, a cross between Nick Drake and a Tibetan monk. So does the six-minute long "Asters," a kaleidoscopic composition that alternates a sleepy, jazzy refrain with psychedelic lulling and flamenco trotting. The surreal "Ode To A Passing" is well served by dissonant and disproportionate instruments. Chords float in the dilated harmony of "The Fact Of A Seraph," not unlike Tim Buckley's dreamy songs. Here, O'Neill's art is better qualified as meditation, not just confession.
Hidden beneath the surface of O'Neil's music is a convoluted mass of feelings, which are better expressed in the instrumental tracks: the surreal guitar noises and colorful guitar tones of "Another Sunday," and "A City In The South," the suave, quasi-classical sonata for guitar, piano and violin that closes the disc.
Peregrine is also a composer's album. O'Neil has managed to produce a highly personal statement and a complex work of art with the most modest of means.
PIERO SCARUFFI | Piero Scaruffi runs the exhaustive music database Scaruffi.com. A native of Italy, he has also been praised for his work on the General Theory of Relativity, formal theories of the mind, and artificial intelligence. And no, we aren't making that up.