Reviews
Boci Album: Scenes From uniXia
Label: Tree Being
Tracks: 10
Website: https://www.bocimusic.com/
I saw Boci live a couple of years ago supporting Our Man In the Filed at A folk club in Cricklade and described her then as a purveyor of intriguing violin loops and Bjorkish singing. Her new album is largely the same mixture, but everything comes into focus with the fuller sound that a recording studio allows her.
Opening song, The Lake is driven by Jon Clark's percussion fills, and drifts to a close with an abstract decay rather than a formal ending. Her lyrics are more about the sound and feeling than anything more substantial and is as much poetry as song words. Moonbathing's third stanza "I fall in love with anyone. By moonlight pools or under some. Of those famous stars." The drums and guitar set up a backbeat over which her wordless vocal, synths and violin build a dense soundscape before the final line "Oh your softness isn't lost on me" brings the song to a gentler close over guitar chords and a swooping violin line.
Boci describes the music as "astral alt-folk inspired by time spent walking alone in the mountains of Scotland, Wales and the Lake District." There's certainly a feel of wide-open spaces to much of the songs here. The found sounds of Fairy Lilt give life to a wonderful musical journey through nature.
Equally songs like CYFYC (Can You Find Your Centre) are close to the folk end of contemporary Jazz, with sweeping Harp and Accordion joining the instrumentation. The central section could almost be 80s King Crimson in feel. aXis is a piano led tune with a seven-piece string section and is a thing of quiet delicate beauty. Her singing on this piece drifts away from the Bjork influence to something closer to Tori Amos' slower songs.
Rob Pemberton's production gives Boci and the supporting cast the best canvas on which to paint the soundscape of each piece. And every one has a different mood. The Last Leaf built over a Violin loop and droning bass synth is the most upbeat tune and would make, as would many of the songs a great template for remixers to work from.
In The Eye I See lacks a formal melody building layers of sound, Accordion, Guitar, and Harp in patterns which weave around each other behind the repeated title. Dreamstar closes the album with the closest to a traditional folk song Boci has to offer. The larger string section returns, over another piece featuring her choral vocal and piano, and is a case of saving the best til last.
If folk music is going to evolve under the influence of newer music styles and technology, then Boci's direction is one of the most interesting places that it could go. Challenging enough to make you think and listen again, but accessible enough to keep reference points to draw the less adventurous into the new world.
Tim Martin
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