PRE-ORDER - OUT MARCH 6TH
WOE028
Special edition LP | signed, hand-numbered risograph sleeve | edition of 50
LP | edition of 350
Field Commander Ali is the solo project of Ali Mollica, a folk song person living on the South Coast of NSW, Australia . The Next From Field Commander, her new record and second under that taken name, was recorded in her bedroom in Stanwell Park, a beachside town surrounded by bushland. Here, where the Great Dividing Range meets the Tasman Sea, Mollica worked quickly in the early part of 2025, utilising little more than a classical guitar and a 4-track tape recorder to execute her vision. The result is a truly beguiling Australian folk record.
With a voice that balances understated vulnerability with determined stoicism, Mollica describes everyday scenes, passing interactions and the moments that follow moments between people, all with an astonishing clarity of expression. Full moons are felt but remain unwitnessed, great loves lean into praxis or strain against it, and time is a character that watches quietly on all the while.
Despite its modest conception, both the songs and recordings are possessed by a unique density. Layered vocals are used undramatically but effectively. Conversational asides seem to open outwards like leaves, and offhand remarks reveal themselves to be quiet realisations through subtle repetition. There is an intimate spaciousness within these songs too, with shuffling pages, creaking chairs, and distant whistling all entering the sonic sphere.
The spirit of folk song clairvoyants like Bridget St John, Anne Briggs and Maxine Funke may be sensed throughout, while Michael Hurley’s ‘Wildegeeses’ is given a faithful, though suitably idiosyncratic, re-reading. A tradition is being channeled here, though ultimately what you are hearing is the emergence of a distinct new voice.
As such, The Next From Field Commander moves with a meandering yet captivating immediacy, clear and self-assured, while remaining deeply receptive to the world and all the things in it - ‘still reaching out, still finding out’. As Mollica notes herself:
"My songs often express the literal goings on in my life – the lyrics are raw and unbridled (and maybe a bit unhinged, too); but underneath this immediacy is a heavy hum that I think sounds like not knowing. How I wish to know!"
If knowing remains beyond us, the process of trying to work it out is compelling as ever.
