In Cagliari born but now in London residing Michele Sarti aka Nick Rivera is being and has been participant in the line-up of many groups (Bron Y Aur; Franklin Delano; Sunny Day Sets Fire; Oh Atoms; Takoma). Yet, his recent project is definitely an act of intimate folk, or folk-based art which tends to search for diverse sonority fields, potent harmonic angles, making out impressive experiments with baroque pop, shuffling analogue electronics and cinematic undercurrents of epicness, all in all, finding out an equilibrium between the kind of astonishing inner harmony and outer form of beauty. Of course, Sarti is not alone, being assisted by many other musicians. For instance, at Renee Luise, the opening track, beautiful unisoned vocal lines are compiled by voices of him and Mary Dow. Indeed, an amazing track. Or in the other place the unisoned chords of fingerpicked strings (guitar, ukulele) and cello keys do play out a perfect chamber folk example (Horn Y Orgy). Or is it as if Air`s Moon Safari`s most epic moments were mastered in the vein of chamber pop attitude somehow? The title track enters into the indie folk area, more concretely, reminding of the Welsh whimsical folk wizards Gorky`s Zygotic Mynci`s playful shufflings on the ground of bucolic acoustic pop jams and acid-filled synthezised passages. Happy song is a happy song is one of the most excellent appearances (if not the best) in 2011 so far. Imagine you having a home in the countryside and you are sitting outside for looking at the sun`s going down. A truly great monumental set indeed.
Listen to it here
9.8
