Moments of Pleasure and Joy
As in introduction to the work of Sara Baggini, this may be the perfect place from which to dip into and observe it’s modest and understated genius.
A bond-esque theme of sublime darkness that echo her childhood spent in mountains and isolation, Moments of Pleasure and Joy sounds like is was born from the 1960’s filmic school of John Barry, somehow expertly married with sublime Italian home market scores absorbed here, from countless films that most of us will never have seen, and, for a short while you think it might dissolve into an epic Portishead like trip hop experience.
Instead it is masterfully reigned back into those same film noir themes that inspired that Bristol sound, but refuses to take any instruction from that past, treading it’s own unique path, with a vocal sound crafted from elements of Kate Bush, Liz Frazer and great British Folk acts.
Moments, like all the finest music, opens out with majestic restraint into something that is difficult to fully appreciate comprehend in one listen.
The intense vocals, delivered with silky sonorous lows and delicate, fragile highs that recall the free spirit that was Felt Mountain, convey a regret filled account of grief and desire, a perfect balance between tension and resolution, of what, the listener is never told, but there is an epic build that somehow never seems to end, until it does. If there was any justice in the world, this would be the next James Bond theme.
This track is begging to be remixed or sampled by one of the new school of the old school trip hop that bubbles around the edges of UK music, an underground playground of cult samplers and 12 bit lofi producers, looking for the next Beth Orton. Well my friends, here she is.
It is rare to come across something so original, yet sounding like it was always here, something akin to alchemy. Was it drawn from the collective unconscious of Jungian reality? Is it masterfully referencing so many familiar points in music history that it fools us into thinking we have been here before?
I don’t know, but however it was done, it deserves a place on the turntables and in the earbuds of anyone who is tired of derivative music crafted by algorithmic social media friendly pop socialites.
Refreshingly original, this is music for a person who values new ideas and wants to get into music crafted with real depth and emotion that exists simply because the composer was compelled to write, a composer wanted to say something to you not just with words, but with sound.
Verdict: A future classic. 10/10.