Think music so intimate, all that is needed is a guitar and vocals to guide us into new sensations. That is the effect of the work of Luke De-Sciscio, and his track ‘Vivid Love’ from forthcoming album ‘Gossamer Rose’.
Folk-inspired tracks often touch on love as a subject of longing, but in this case, De-Sciscio delves into how it stirs something internal. Opening with beautifully picked strings which eases into a plucked rhythm – fingers caressing over this only instrument with an intimacy which makes the vocals more intense. He begins with the lines ‘to a gossamer rose’, rolled out from deep in the throat, like the impulsive movement of a yawn. The opening evokes a soundscape of perhaps a person on the edge of sleep, thinking of a loved one in a way which lends them a dream-like magnificence – in this case a ‘gossamer rose’.
Like the guitar plucking that becomes more insistent, so does the state of consciousness of the voice. It fires forward natural imagery of how the ‘wind churns’, weather ‘turns’ and a state of being ‘soil singed’ – slid forth with emphasis like a hot conformation of being alive. This is an exploration of a love for another which occupies both the edge of sleep and the intensity of the world, the acoustic and vocal balance reminding me a little of Kurt Vile – but softer and more seductive. Is such an intense love dangerous?
There is no set structure to the track, it is more like an outcry; a passionate play of emotions and experiences drawn together in repetition of dedication to this ‘rose’. There are undercurrents of darkness at times, when the rhythm becomes a little rougher and faster over ‘the climbing whirling blacks and greens’. Yet the vocals seem to say this is all part of the process of coming close to love, singing of ‘my gossamer’ with a bold, breathy quality on the ‘my’.
The voice varies from words wavering on the edge of wail, a little like a young Morrissey, to trickling like a breath, billowing into ‘come find me naked’ towards the close. It’s emotive rather than shocking. For this is a track which takes us through the very depths of desire, the guitar giving a slightly deeper burr as we progress, as if those finger-threadings have worked into thumb-strokes. This is what it is to be in love – it’s intense, and beautiful, at times it fades but is always memorable.
Luke De-Sciscio will release his new album ‘Gossamer Rose’ on 2nd November. Purchase the album on iTunes and Bandcamp.
