Ida Lune - Ida Lune (2020)

Three curious New Zealand songstresses Anna Wooles, Deanne Krieg, and Rose Blake will release their self-named debut on the Home Alone label. The girls will precede with a slow-motion video, shot by cinematographer, Lilian Pang, on the craggy shores of Red Rocks, Wellington. Ida Lune are among handfuls of female groups akin to the experimental, vocal folk movement of our time. With noticeable similarities to the merciful siren song of the Staves, Ida Lune are just as easy to digest in an intimate setting. The girls offer a unique blend of straight-tone choir boy vocal style above a warm and complimentary alto range. A gentle vibrato is used on additional tracks to further demonstrate Ida Lune’s choral capabilities and they are sweet as a nut.

Opening track has the pungency of a medieval, Fleet Fox production style. The melodic texture of The Well is a peaceful subsidiary to the harmonic focal point to the track. The development of which beautifully formulates the album to its entirety, with minimal fuss. River Song, accompanied by an uncomplicated banjo thrum is dressed in a flowery, vocal narrative to sweeten the senses. The three musical disciplines their sound has inherited: Jazz, classical and choral, is consumed by the love of harmony and this constitutes to the contrasting tonal colours of No Harm in Hope, and others.

Voice, as a primary instrument with minimal accompaniment, keeps the focus where they want it. An additional shlep along, Charley Davenport accompany the girls on the instrumentation. Relaxed strings, a little cajon (Ato Baidoo) and the rare and illusive bassline by Scott Maynard is enough to drive lyric from one note to the next. The self-titled album includes themes of female disempowerment with fleeting comedic pleasantries in the midst. Ida Lune is evidently built on friendship with a shared affinity to harmonics. Dainty, decorative and masterful are never so well combined, Ida Lune is audibly reminiscent of a singing crystal glass and the saintly echoing of a Renaissance church choir that lingers in its path.