Elisa Thorne is an artist from Vancouver, and “The Garden” is her latest single. She is a harpist, vocalist and composer with a very impressive CV! Multiple collaborations, recordings, and live performances, but she is also a project leader, and she currently serves as an associate for the nonprofit organisation Vancouver Improvised Music Society and has curated an outdoor house concert series, Woodland Patio Series, since 2014.
To me, that paints a picture of a very dedicated, talented, and involved artist, the kind of musician for whom I have a lot of respect.
So now let’s talk about the music. “The Garden” is a very cinematic, ethereal-sounding track, with a lush tapestry of harp parts, building up to a full little harp symphony towards the end. Between lyrics and vocalisation, this sounds like ripples on a lake, and I would say that the imagery I would be expecting to get out of this would be calm landscapes, but there is something about the production work done here with the reverbs, that brings an out-of-this-world touch to this, like in Bjork’s songs.
Her voice is soft and soothing, and the sound of the main vocal and the harmonies is very well produced and sounds like spirits talking to you, flying around in the air like a scene from a Miyazaki movie.
There is also something Asian in the melodies after a certain point, and a Philip Glass element as to the hypnotic repetition of the riffs. As I always like to imagine the music I get my hands on is a soundtrack to a movie, this could be in a Zhang Yimou film, but also strangely reminded me of some of Reznor’s work in How To Destroy Angels.
At this point, I would like to include her own words from the press release: “She laughingly classifies it as ‘experimental indie for the bathtub.’ Reflecting on her trajectory from classical to contemporary music, she says, ‘As much as I roll my eyes at the angelic/mythical/feminine reputation the harp has, generosity is important to me in music making. My hope is for the listener to feel held in some way, which means sometimes it does sound magical and dreamy. That being said, I think the harp can be a total boss, and that’s why I love it.”
There is a certain elitism that comes from classical and jazz music-trained musicians. And many times, the artists who receive that training, sooner or later, try to find ways to seek freedom of expression and more versatile ways of using their craft in contemporary music. It is refreshing every time I see someone from that background using sarcasm and self-deprecation to “exorcise” the demon of seriousness that is possessing all those bastions of old discipline.
And for the record, I did feel held, as if I took some of Alice’s pills, I got really tiny and was embraced by lily pads. Plus, this song was definitive proof that the harp can indeed be a total boss.
Written by Spiros Maus
