Every so often an artist comes along who grabs your attention and won’t let go.
I hadn’t heard of Laura Gibson previously, but having listened to her sublime Indie Folk on current album “Goners” and watched some of her videos, I’m hooked and catching her live is a no-brainer.
Laura Gibson has recently premiered her new video for “I Don’t Want Your Voice To Move Me,” from her latest album ‘Goners’, which was released in October via City Slang. The video precedes an extensive UK tour which begins late next month and will culminate with a special intimate show at St John on Bethnal Green in London on March 5th.
Directed by Gibson herself, the video was shot over two days across her home state of Oregon, from the forest near Portland, to the Alvord Desert in the Southeastern corner of the state. “The phrase “I don’t want your voice to move me” came to me as I was driving up to Mount Hood the summer before last” she explains. “I kept singing the phrase to myself while walking up the face of the mountain near Timberline Lodge. I was processing a lot of heavy things at the time, and began thinking of the particular experience of shared loss between two people: sitting across from someone you love, feeling unable to cross the emotional distance to connect or comfort them. Sometimes there exists a giant lake of pain between two people that neither knows how to cross.
Since I was young, whenever I’ve felt a rupture in a relationship, be it death, or physical distance, or my own inability to express what I want to express, I’d dream or imagine I was searching for the person in some other landscape; the surreal representation of a real intention. I wanted to make a video that included these images, that captured something of grief, and of the ways we silently reach towards one another when we’re unable to summon the words. The image of a woman in a red hospital gown came to me while hiking in the mountains of Nepal, and I began imagining a story that became the video. ”
‘Goners’, the fifth album from Gibson, found its name in the first line she wrote in the bleak beginning of 2017: “If we’re already goners, why wait any longer, for something to crack open”. That line became a lyric in the title track. It also became a sort of mantra. “I’d known for a long time that I wanted to make a record about grief. In some ways, every song I’ve ever written has something to do with grief. This time around, I felt compelled to stare into the abyss. Goners seemed an apt title because it speaks of both the future and the past. The word is used for two types of people: those who lose themselves in the ones they love, and those whose deaths are imminent.” Much of ‘Goners’ explores the loss of her father as a teenager, and her wrestling with the decision of whether or not to become a parent herself. “My days are charged. Potential future grief forces me to reckon with past grief. These were two points on a map of grief. I wanted to explore the territory between them.”
‘Goners’ marks the first record Gibson made after completing a MFA in writing, and her language has never felt more alive, her storytelling sharper, her imagination looser. It is a record for thinkers and feelers, for the fierce and also the weary, and despite its darkness, she has succeeded in making a work of radical hope.
Gibson has also recently been named a curator for the Joyful Noise Recordings’ White Label Series that highlights favorite unknown or under-appreciated artists (other 2019 curators include St Vincent, Julianna Barwick, Circuit des Yeux, Prince Rama, Sondra Lerche, Thurston Moore, Yonatan Gat). She has selected Kele Goodwin’s 2010 album,Hymns, which has never been issued on vinyl and will be released via the series next month.
What the media are saying:
“It’s a quietly bewitching LP, storied and subtle and sweet.” – Q
“[Goners] finds her tinkering with the complexion of her song. bringing piano and strings to the surface, mostly at the expense of guitar. It turns out to be a clever fit.” – Uncut
” a gripping collection of songs about accountability and grief, she’s diversified her arrangements to allow for everything from barren ballads to grandiose stormers that boom and swirl.” – NPR
Laura Gibson UK tour dates:
25th Feb – Musician, LEICESTER
26th Feb – Whelans, DUBLIN
27th Feb – Soup Kitchen, MANCHESTER
28th Feb – Hug & Pint, GLASGOW
1st Mar – Old Cinema Launderette, DURHAM
2nd Mar – Hyde Park Book Club, LEEDS
3rd Mar – Louisiana, BRISTOL
5th Mar – St John on Bethnal Green, LONDON
‘Goners’ track listing:
- I Carry Water
- Domestication (YouTube)
- Slow Joke Grin
- Goners (YouTube)
- Performers
- Clemency
- Tenderness (Lyric video | Stream)
- Marjory
- Thomas
- I Don’t Want Your Voice To Move Me (YouTube)
External Links:
https://lauragibson.lnk.to/Goners
www.lauragibsonmusic.com
www.facebook.com/lauragibsonmusic
www.twitter.com/lauragibsongirl
www.instagram.com/lauragibsongirl
