The Wild Places
Linda Perhacs : Parallelograms (US,1970)****°
I first discovered a track of linda on a very good compilation album of woman's voices, called "Hippie Goddesses". After the Wild Places reissue I bought the item and enjoyed it very much. Now many years later Michael Piper has traced Linda, and made a second reissue, this time with the album remastered, and with some bonus tracks. I wondered if it was worth buying the new version too, but now when I had the chance to listen, I know now it is worth the further investment. The sound balance on the tracks has improved a lot -Linda seemed not to have liked the LP pressing that much, but she kept one cassette tape from a the original reel to reels, which we can hear now for the first time-. Here each track comes out much better than the earlier versions. The bonus tracks are also worth discovering.
But now about the album, how does it sound ? Although there are various tracks that stand out for various reasons, now with the newly remastered mix I think the complete album is much more enjoyable in its complete score. Linda has a high degree of a serenity in her singing, like a fragile goddess of waters and winds, especially on "Dolphin", or with such a human emotional depth on tracks like "Hey, who really cares ?". This is combined with the same degree of serenity on (a few times multi-tracked) guitar fingerpicking, sometimes with some keyboards, bass, handpercussion. A few left over tracks (like "Sandy Toes") are a bit more earthly, with more additional guitars, bass, percussion, mostly this still means from a sensitive human level. Above all we now and then hear multilayers of ethereal voice arrangements. This makes tracks like "Parallelograms" have an unearthly beauty. I used parts of this track more often, as intro for my radioshow, mixed with Stockhausen's "Stimmung" and a track of Tamia's first private album. You can literally dream on this track, as flowing dawn over water. There even is a very experimental, very ethereal contemporary part in it. Such abstract voice waves are also used as arrangements elsewhere, like on "Moon and Cattails". This track has besides fingerpicking guitars, also some flute touches ?, and tabla. A track like "Delicious" sounds more like Joni Mitchell during her first album (another album which I regard as an all time classic).
Four bonustracks comes in pairs. "If you were my man" comes with a more naked idea on the demo and a more developed studio version. The "Chimacum Rain" demo version however has a unique subtleness. The second demo version has additional sounds intended to improve the mood. Another version of "Hey, who really cares" is also added too, here with an extra intro part, an improvement or at least a nice variation.
This album is a must-have. Latest re-reissue is done by Guerssen Records.
