She Sleeps to the Sound Of Knives (ANTICLOCK RECORDS AC0015) is by The Gray Field Recordings, an act we haven’t heard from since 2003 and their Sing 99 and 90 album, although the principal performer R. Loftiss (from Oklahoma) did surface on that quite-good LP by Black Lesbian Fishermen in 2020.
Nine pieces here, including the very long ‘Rappaccini’s Daughter’ which would occupy one side of vinyl if released on that format; I am hesitating to call them “songs”, as Loftiss favours a minimal musical backdrop for the recit of her poems and texts, although pieces like ‘Sarah Bishop’ or ‘Verdant Green’ have a passing resemblance to a Julee Cruise moment or a kind of darker, twistier version of Enya. Loftiss lives in a private world, full of symbols and allusions, and describes her strange encounters in a modest, unassuming way. There’s a certain charm in the unusual music arrangements, veering from stripped-down slow electropop to a wispy form of pagan-dark-folk, with lyrics and texts alluding to sleep, dreaming, and sex rituals. She wants to be considered “surreal”.
I want to enjoy this more, but I wish Loftiss would make more of an effort to express herself, reveal her emotions, and make her lyrics (which are clearly important to her, and well-crafted) a bit more intelligible. For instance, ‘Rappaccini’s Daughter’ is extremely hard to follow, yet potentially the most intriguing piece on offer here, like an obscure 18th-century Italian novel reformatted into a strange mix of horror-movie sounds, plucked lutes, and overlapping whispered vocal recits. The photo of Loftiss inside the CD – white lacey gown and knives held over her face – is like a still from a Mario Bava movie. Ana Vizcarra Rankin did the woodcut cover. From 26 June 2023.