Young singer-songwriter, Mirel Wagner makes ominous blues folk stripped bare. You don’t want to listen to Wagner’s stories, filled with death, self-destruction, sin, deep lakes and dark woods, alone in the dark.
The soundscape of Mirel’s quiet singing and a single acoustic guitar is wonderfully bare and intensive. Wagner has no doubt been influenced by Hope Sandoval, Nick Cave and PJ Harvey, but doesn’t sound exactly like any of them.
Bio"Songwriting can hardly be more minimalistic, no-frills, more strict as MirelWagner's sparse music," wrote German Spex magazine, quite right.Mirel Wagner was born in Ethiopia, and grew up in peaceful conditions in Espoo, Finland.
The family name leads back to a German great-grandfather. At age 7 she was given violinlessons, at 13 she switched to guitar and at 16 she wrote her first songs ("To The Bone", thealbum opener, is one of those early tunes) After a while she dared to join open mic events inHelsinki.
People were surprised, interested and seemed to like it.Jean Ramsay, an American music journalist living in Finland, came across her at one of thesesessions. He was particularly convinced of her talent, raved about her in an early article andrecommended her to others.
So, without producing a demo and contacting record labels, shefound herself sitting in a real recording studio. Aki Roukala, a photographer and friend ofRamsay offered to finance these recordings and to take care that the tapes secured arelease.
Over two days she recorded 12 songs straight. 9 of them can be found on her debut,which was first released in Finland in spring 2011, and now in Europe via 22-Pistepirkko label Bone Voyage Recordings (in North America it gonna see release through Friendly Fire Recordings, March 27).
Whether in Finland, France, Germany or now UK, journalists who've been listening a bit closer are full of praise for this young, slightly different talent, who has seemingly appeared out of the blue with her otherworldly gloomy folk.
.There's not much you can hear on this debut. It's an "empty" record - in the best sense:A stoicly picked, almost trance-inducing acoustic guitar, a voice you wouldn't expect to hearfrom a 23 year old and songs, which mostly avoid classical (folk) song structure (rather"lonely prayers in expressionistic language" Spex).
Everything is stripped to the bone andmaintains a beautiful, strangely fragile tension, even more so during her live performances."The singer is majestic in her sobriety." a French critic wrote. "She will literally knock youdown with her candour and tenderness, captivating with her melodic charisma, wonderful andquiet.
… Music from another time, fabulous and elusive .. "
