Another joint Fishrider/Occultation release spanning the whole wide world
While travelling
through Berlin in 2012, Lucinda King ripped a sketch of a skeleton and a woman
from a book,
and stored it in her wallet. The piece was Death and the Maiden, a 19th Century
engraving by
Edvard Munch. It is an artwork steeped in mythology, one which explores the dark
bounds
between love and death, frailty of beauty, and beauty of decay. On her return to
New
Zealand, Lucinda began to make music with Danny Brady. Inspired by the
Chromatics, they
initially sought to make their own style of hazy Italo-pop. However, as
Lucinda’s vocals and
basslines melded with Danny’s synth and drum programming, it became evident
they were
creating something much darker. Soon, the duo welcomed guitarist and drummer
Hope
Robertson to the fold, and Death and the Maiden was born. On their debut album,
the group
craft a shadowy sound world, filled with drowsy mechanical drums, melancholic
synth
arpeggios, reverb-drenched guitars, and sighing vocal melodies. The combination
is both
hypnotic and devastating, as Lucinda explores themes of love, loss, and decay,
wrapped in
tactile electro-acoustic languor that sets teeth on edge. It is fitting that the
group recorded the
album in the cavernous rooms of Dunedin’s None Gallery, a spiritual home to
many of New
Zealand’s experimental and electronic upstarts. Despite the sense of loss
and darkness on
this record, there is a bittersweet hopefulness at the core. On Dear ____,
Lucinda sings of the
irreducible distance between the self and desire, with a lyric penned on her
flight back from
Berlin. Yet Danny and Hope counterpoint this sombre subject matter with soaring
sonic beauty, crafting a party record for heartbroken
romantics. These striking juxtapositions are evidence that Death and the Maiden
are seeking to create a feeling, something that lasts.
The result of this effort is a stunning record, one which haunts the listener
and demands repeated listens.
