By Michelle Broder Van Dyke
Wildbirds and Peacedrums' pristine and primal music is a hybrid of reverent pop, bare blues, and ecstatic soul music with a twist of pitch and tone that creates an undefinable sonic experience. This sparse expressive pop by Scandinavian vocalist Mariam Wallentin and drummer Andreas Werliin bouncingly builds with just enough simple percussion and vocal intensity to allow space and silence, like unanswerable questions, to hang between sound, asking to be filled in by the listener’s interest and intent.
Powered by feeling-infused drums and goosebump-invoking vocals, W and P’s debut, Heartcore (Leaf, 2008), is a powerful, emotive invitation into the minds of these music school drop-outs/masters.
The duo met at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg in 2004, but both dropped out shortly after, frustrated by the institution’s intentional disinterest in creativity. During a holiday in Berlin, the two married, aligning themselves with other admiringly adorable couples making music (i.e., Mates of State, Captain and Tennille). Although they named their first album Heartcore, a laughable title at best, W and P unconventionally avoid genre placement such as sadcore, post-hardcore, slowcore, and especially grindcore, and instead remain outside of categorization, creating their own niche.
On the stand-out uptempo track “Doubt/Hope,” Wallentin’s quivering voice climbs the scale, shouting scat syllables toward the middle of the track. Then it crashes, bangs, and crescendos along with drums braced by hand claps. “I Can’t Tell in His Eyes” is a twinkling, dreamy number that finds Wallentin pondering a lover (“I can’t tell in his eyes if he’s gonna cry or if he’s gonna fight”) and showing off her powerful vocal range, which is occasionally augmented by whispers and spectral chants.
“The Battle in Water” is a personal drama doused in the metaphor of a turbulent ocean, which utilizes Werliin’s low and rough voice in response to Wallentin’s (“I am in the wilderness / you turn out my light”) creating the fullest of the recording's sparse arrangements. Other tracks teeter towards the eerily obscure, like “Bird” where heavy tom-tom strikes bolster a series of intonations that seem to be about losing one’s mind as the song loses it center and spirals outward.
As untamed as it is unexpectedly beautiful, Heartcore is full of emotionally resonating tracks, more tangible at peace or upbeat than when chaotic, and the entire album remains bold and imaginative throughout - thanks to W and P’s technical prowess. Known for being an outstanding live act, with Werliin’s fluid drumming backing Wallentin forceful delivery, W and P manages to replicate the humanity of live shows with this disc, creating a sonic storm that bursts and shatters with savage thunder.
WILDBIRDS AND PEACEDRUMS
With Lykke Li
Fillmore
1805 Geary
(415) 346-6000
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