Merope – ‘Vejula’ album review: twinkling Lithuanian experimentalism
THE SKINNY: Dew looks pleasant from a kitchen window, twinkling away like diamontes on the grass. But if you’re in amongst it camping, and it drenches everything you own, the prettiness soon proves infuriating. The same can be said of the new Merope album: Vejula. This offering from Lithuania takes traditional folk and renders it ambient. The result is so soothingly pleasant that if it catches you in the wrong mood, it can actually piss you off.
The swirling album is the latest offering from singer and kanklės player Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė and guitarist/producer Bert Cools. With its origins firmly in the folk of the duo’s homeland, it extends out into the future by digitising the rattle and creak of traditional instrumentation. The result is as haunting as it is becalming. This mixture of homespun avant-garde instrumentation and lusciously ambient production is a pertinent one, ensuring the past doesn’t lose its sincerity in the face of the evolving present.
The duo have been flirting with this notion since they first arrived in 2012, but Vejula may well be their most assured offering. They even welcome collaborations from Shahzad Ismaily, Laraaji, Toma Gouband and Bill Frisell, all of which add to the expansiveness and sense of importance that bolsters the dainty tunes. However, as stated, sometimes they are maybe in danger of being a little too dainty—a little too much like trying to catch a butterfly.
So, if you’re in need of substance, you might seek something a little firmer than Vejula. However, if you seeking a light and fruity sip, then Vejula might be the wispy brush with the past that you’re after. Folk standards sound, paradoxically, unlike anything you’ve heard before. It feels akin to wandering the woods with a VR headset—new and unknowable but familiar and cosy.
For fans of: Micro-dosing in the most micro of manners. Playing vinyl from 1923 on your state-of-the-art hi-fi.
A concluding comment from Lemmy’s ghost: “So, what do you do at a Merope gig then? Fall asleep into your dhal?”
Vejula track by track:
Release Date: November 8th | Producer: Bert Cools | Label: STROOM
‘Koumu Lil’: Embalming ambient feedback and synthesised harp open up the record in the most welcoming way. But as is its constitution, if you’re of a nervous disposition on the day you hear it, you might find it a bit too welcoming. Cults, for instance, are welcoming. Atonal flourishes, thankfully, somewhat offset this. [3.5/5]
‘Namopi’: In a rattling jam, the duo and their collaborators capture the sound of awakening. The creaking and increasing instrumentation sounds like the yawns and stretches of morning. That’s an impressive musical feat, even if Lemmy might think differently. [4/5]
‘Lopšinė’: Bill Frisell joins the duo for a more recognisably traditional piece. Guitar suddenly sounds familiar and as soothing as any instrument ever has. Meanwhile, stirring vocals whisk you off to sleep somewhere more wistful than your own bed. [4/5]
‘Vija’: As sparse as music gets. It’s twinkle and jangly. It sounds akin to asking a 4-year-old to create something ‘pleasant’, and they just happen to have innate musicality. Nevertheless, there’s still not much to it. [2.5/5]
‘Spindulè’: A rolled bottle creates an eerie opening. Once more, the vocals prove stunning. And the hush that the track enforces is soon filled delicately with little spring-like blossoms of synthesised instruments. [3/5]
‘Aglala’: Glitching and dissonant looping techniques really ram home the futurist’s take on the past approach of the album. If nothing else, that makes for a song that is academically interesting, but the same can’t quite be said for its emotional content. [2.5/5]
‘O Underhill’: Keys and other little rumblings humanise the sounds on display, so it unfurls like you’re privy to someone in a magical world simply undertaking a few tasks. With sudden bursts of alien-like vocals, this certainly provides an otherworldliness. [3.5/5]
‘Rana’: As if sensing the lull of its second half, the tempo of the album suddenly rises, and there are even flourishes of techno – techno playing from another era – channelled into the mix. [3.5/5]
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