Review:'Russo, Lizabett' 'While I Sit And Watch This Tree volume 2'
- Label: 'Last Night From Glasgow'
- Genre: 'Folk'
- Release Date: '4.11.22.'
Our Rating:
While I Sit And Watch This Tree Volume 2 is the fifth album by Lizabett Russo, who is an Romanian emigre from Brazov in Transylvania, who is currently based in Scotland and whom on arriving as an immigrant suffered all the sadly normal abuse and prejudice, as she found her way she became an Avant Garde Folk singer songwriter with an incredible vocal range. For this album she is joined by Graeme Stephen, Oene Van Geel and Udo Dermadt.
The album opens with the woozy blues of Do You Know, this is experimental almost classical blues with loads of carefully placed sounds and Lizabett's deep and sensuous vocals, this has an almost haunted feel to it as the strings build tension and emotion.
Lessons opens with quiet careful strings and vocals a bit like Stina Nordensturm as this song slowly encases you in its beauty as it carefully builds, you figure out just which lessons Lizabett is going to teach you with this rather magisterial tune.
Dincolo De Nori is the first tune sung in Lizabetts native Romanian and sounds like it could be sung from the top of Poiana Brazov, the Mountain just outside her hometown of Brazov, this sounds like it's echoing the siren sounds of the hills and mountains in search of peace and acceptance, with the percussion sounding like it's played on pots and pans set against the viola and operatic backing vocals, this is a stunning piece of music and has echoes of the works of Ciprian Porumbescu.
Woman Have You Lost Your Mind has a slow pensive ambient opening with hushed vocals whispering the tale of what happened to make this woman lose her mind, if in fact that's what happened, the stark sparing instrumentation adds to the emotion carried in the lyrics and vocals.
What Grows Inside Dark Souls almost sounds like her vocals are echoing around The Black Church in Brasov, although musically this has an Eastern European avant garde feel to it, this is a bewitching song of despair for what some people are capable of, be they racists, rapists, murderers or other dark souls this song wonders how they ended up that way.
It Must Have Been is a fairy tale that takes us back thousands of years ago back in Transylvanian history with a carefully picked harp like backing, as this tale of resurrection and the many lives you may have lived.
House Carpenter is the traditional Scottish folk song played in a slow careful way as this tale of love and determination to marry the carpenter, rather than some prince, slowly unfolds with supreme control and a stark beauty.
The album closes with the traditional Romanian folk song Hora Unirii that is usually sung on January 24th the founding day in 1859 of Romania, this very short song has an almost nursery rhyme feel to it.
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