Madame P, Spellbound, CD-R

"Madame P is the pseudonym of the Italian musician and artist, Patrizia Oliva. Formerly a member of the seminal all-female noise/performance troupe Allun, she has been working as a solo artist for only 18 months, but has already self-released a string of limited CD-Rs. In her live work, and on her most recent recordings, she has been exploring the range and powerful expressive potential of her own voice. Sampling her vocal in real time and feeding it through various effects, using contact mics and various other minimal electronic devices, she builds layer upon layer of ecstatic tongue. Her latest CD-R, Spellbound (Curor Recordings), is appropriately named, for there is something of the supernatural about Ms. Oliva. A hundred voices emanate from her throat – a spirit choir to invade your dreams. This glossolalia recalls Diamanda Galas, and particularly on the third untitled track, listeners may be reminded of the multiple vocals and churchly medievalism of Fursaxa. Comparisons like these would ordinarily do a disservice to such singular artistes, but Madame P proves herself fiercely independent, no mere copyist or arriviste. Spellbound's final track – which for convenience I'll call 'I got your letter' – makes an unequivocal statement of emotional independence, and the album does more than enough to show that the same holds artistically. Be warned, for like the sailors lured to rocky destruction by the enchanting beauty of the sirens' song, you may be helpless to resist the shipwreck of your heart."

Here's a link to a recent movie of MadameP live on her U.K. tour:

          http://www.freenoise.co.uk/articles/oct06/madame-p.htm

In the vast grey sea of plumber cracks looming over Line-6 pedals that is the meathead noise underground, Venison Whirled stands out like a glorious yellow rose. Easier said than explained perhaps (and harder still to explain why you shouldn't just skip over this and hit play already), but given that 'musicality' and 'noise' are ultimately useless as signposts depending on your vantage point, how to define the parameters of these glorious straight lines? Lisa is an alchemist of no small skill on any instrument, but how she squeezes the mercury from tiny piezo mikes and drum heads is quite beyond little ol' gtr lunkhead me. I can say this is a bit fuzzier and sculpted compared to the unattended processes of her earlier CDR, but ultimately she might as well be dropping mikes deep into the Edwards aquifer for all I can tell.  So lets just say this is rippled shimmering drizzle drawn out of a cloudless TX sky (OK)? And what really counts is the lasered focus, the infinite roads to the horizon, the wide-eyed journey to the clear light beyond. As Tommy Hall once said, "Know naught!/ All ways are lawful to innocence" (or was that Merrell Fankhauser)?

Tom Carter
Oakland CA
Fall '06