Stella Kola: Stella Kola
Fountain Flight
If the name Stella Kola doesn't ring a bell (not yet, at least), the names of its two principals very well might, given that Robert Thomas is a founding member of Sunburned Hand of the Man and singer Beverly Ketch is known for her involvement in Bunwinkies and Weeping Bong Band. Stella Kola is both the name of the duo's new joint project and the title of the debut album issued on their own label, Fountain Flight. As much as Stella Kola's their baby, they're joined on the album by a clutch of talented friends, among them P. G. Six, Wednesday Knudsen, Willie Lane, Jen Gelineau, Jeremy Pisani, and others. Some of those names might be familiar too, given their participation in some of the principals' related outfits.
Certainly all of the musicians impose respective stamps on the songs, but it's Thomas and Ketch whose fingerprints are most dominant—hardly surprising when they're the ones who wrote them. Ketch's clear, unpretentious voice is the centre around which the instruments gather, naturally, and her lyrics appeal for their evocative story-telling character and for topics ranging from the prosaic to the phantastical. With Thomas's acoustic guitar her constant partner, the music benefits from the enrichment the others bring to it. Strings, saxophones, flutes, keyboards, and guitars flesh out the arrangements without overburdening them. The playing is solid and assured but not slick or airless.
With Knudsen's flute dancing around Ketch's voice, “Set Out Too Soon” plays like an entranced walk through a spirits-filled forest; with the vocal double-tracked, “Free Afternoon” could almost pass for a lost unplugged Broadcast song. Whereas a harder-edged side emerges for the rousing “November” via a muscular rhythm attack and electric guitars, “Summer Night” opts for a gentler treatment when it's a lullaby. Elsewhere, Gelineau's viola adds just the right touch to “The Air We Breathe” and Knudsen's woodwinds enhance the drowsy allure of “Fair Youth & Dark Lady.” The contributions of both do much to make the penultimate “Being is a Beggar's Blessing” one of the set's most likeable cuts.
The album packs fourteen songs into a breezy forty minutes, the release better experienced as a whole than isolated bits. However tempting it might be to call it psych-folk, the label's off the mark. A better though still limiting term would be pastoral folk for the group's contemporary take on the kind of music long associated with outfits like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. Depending on your listening history, other names that might come to mind are Bridget St. John, Shirley Collins, Kevin Ayers, and Nick Drake, and anyone who's enjoyed their music should find Stella Kola's as satisfying. And rather than regarding it as a nostalgic trip down memory lane, think of it as classic music that's as appealing today as it was decades ago.February 2023