by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
As a fixture of Portland, Maine’s vibrant and creative DIY folk scene, Lisa/Liza will release her sophomore full length (or 8th, depending on who is counting), Momentary Glance, on November 30th via Orindal Records, though she’s been releasing home-made demos and hard-to-find cassettes/CDs for years. Whether you’ve rapturously devoured her catalog from the start or you’re tuning in for the first time, nothing can prepare you for the minimalist beauty of her latest, recorded together with Efrim Manuel Menuck (GYBE, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, etc) while grieving the loss of a friend during what she described as the hardest time of her life. The album is her first to feature her live band, moving from bedroom acoustics to electric wonder without losing a stitch of atmosphere or personal attachment. This record is about as beautiful as they come, each performance stretched out with dimly shimmering clarity and blissful patience.
While lead single “The Matador” was built on strings and an ominous reverb, “Real Estate,” the album’s second single and opening track, feels more like a solo composition, Liza Victoria and company’s pastoral guitar-work paired only with her magnificent voice. Kept primarily to a hush, the bare-bones approach to the finger-picked melody and gently commanding vocals feels like a presence of another time, reflections of memories brought to life during the cold winter months. Victoria’s poetic vocals recalling specific moments that feel abstract but reflective, an open-framework to a world both ruminative and transportive as she sings, “Watch the stars fall apart / Makes the road to no-place / Seem a lot less lost / And you seem a lot less lost.”
Lisa/Liza’s Momentary Glance is out November 30th via Orindal Records.