01-04-2000

Tara Jane O'Neil

"Peregrine"

Upon first listen to "Peregrine": a tiring week, a weekend that promises to be quiet... The soft sofa is offering up its arms for a rest, I'm looking forward to lounging lazily, and I feel like discovering the first album of someone I've never heard of. And as I listen to the opening track, I can't help grinning and claiming loudly "why, it's beautiful, it's beautiful, it's beautiful!" (in a tone close to a hysterical bleating). That story can seem simple or ordinary, but it's a story I want to share. Because, although I've undoubtedly fallen in love with Tara Jane and above all with her music, it's not a treasure I want to keep to myself. On the contrary, keeping that little secret would be a pure frustration, knowing that there must be many people out there in need of the comfort of the "why, it's beautiful" while sitting on their sofa, on a night of great weariness. The album title, "Peregrine," can be understood as a "tendency to wander." The album will not deny this roving quality, as Tara Jane never chose to have a favourite instrument in the first place. She's a meddler; the guitar, bass, banjo, balla laika, piano... (as for the violin, her friends Ida Pearle and Samara Lubelski take care of it) are the vital elements of her complex melodies. Besides, whether it's on instrumental tracks or songs sung with a deliciously slow and whispered voice, you're invited on a sort of stroll. A stroll that settles you in a hint of a world that's never completely defined, built on satin-like folk and pop songs, mixed with jazzy delicacy. And as it's all delivered at a tempo just slightly faster than that of a hungry sloth, it only makes the sensation of reeling in slow motion even more pleasant.