We were big fans of Deserts of Youth, the 2016 album from Lisa/Liza, aka the project of Portland, Maine’s Liza Victoria. In our review, we praised the way Victoria created “wonderfully minimal and psych-tinged songs,” that resembled “complex poetry arising from a relatively simple set up, just straining finger-picked guitar and her gently wavering voice”.
The latest Lisa/Liza release is Barn Coat, a five-song EP that sees her continue with her stripped back sound. The deceptively short release is stark and bare, painted in the pastel tones of dawn, working to carve out a space of contemplation within a busy world. The EP opens with ‘Vanity Plate’, hushed vocals wrapped in intricately picked acoustic guitar. The lyrics are perfectly suited to be delivered in a soft murmur, suffused with gently magical images of “teal trees” and “lemon breezes” and “cherry blossom glazed mountains,” which form a peaceful tapestry, a comforter to wrap around your shoulders.
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However, ‘Encounters’ isn’t quite so gentle. With the guitar strummed in staccato spikes, Victoria’s vocals recall the restrained power of Yowler’s The Offer, the lyrics delivered full of illusions and uncertainty:
“encounters with the first verse
encounter with the first kind of love
i can’t be
i’ll watch the moon draw a sun on its face again”
This is followed by The Robin’s Song, which opens delicate but expands into a plaintive lament, and leads onto ‘Windows Up’, a subtly devastating rumination on loss and change and memory. This is a song about loving someone from a distance, one that is perhaps geographic or even something a little more permanent and harder to define. The sadness here has a glint of solace, the idea that whatever happens, our loved ones leave indelible marks in our minds, marks that remain connected to threads to our past regardless of where we might go or who we might become.
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Closer ‘BC’ plays with ideas of change and permanency, where the ever-shifting natural world is held as a refuge, and a reminder that there are levels to such things. Because, for all the transformations of time, and the irreversible effect this has on us as people, it is all part of a larger cycle, one which was existing long before us, and will persist way out ahead.
Such an idea feels especially pertinent on an EP both brave and reassuring, a blanket to crawl under and an unblinking lens that probes deep into our psyche. Barn Coat is a release of consistent quality and atmosphere, evocative and ethereal but undeniably human, confirmation if any were needed that Lisa/Liza is a musician and writer to be reckoned with.
You can get Barn Coat on cassette of download from the Lisa/Liza Bandcamp page.