Lise Barkas & Lisa Käuffert - Lo Becat

First released as a micro-edition CDr back in 2017, Lise Barkas & Lisa Käuffert's interpretation of La Belle Va Au Jardin Des Amour now finds its way to a first time vinyl tradition courtesy of Morc. Though six years old, Lo Becat interestingly seems to fit within a more recent propensity towards traditional song that's become prevalent in the European avant garde/DIY underground - it's a thread we can draw through the disparate works of Kali Malone, Blod, Arthur Chambry, Brannten Schnurre, Luster, Annelies Monsere et al. Why artists are more commonly looking back instead of forward for inspiration probably says more for our current cultural moment than anything else, perhaps finding something more comforting in the established structures of old than the unknown void up ahead. Whether this was something Barkas and Käuffert were consciously exploring here is hard to discern, but their use of bagpipes, a somewhat archaic (and deeply unfashionable) instrument with well noted ties to traditional song and cultures, offers some insight into where their interests might lie: i'd estimate that few people pick up the bagpipes and think of the future. As such, Lo Becat sounds like a totemic piece, a near-30 minute long undulating drone carved out of stone and as old as the wind, the hardy but elegant thistle singing against the elements. These kind of vibrations have likely been out there forever, Barkas and Käuffert have just rechanneled them into their own song.