Flock. Jane Weaver

Come 2021 Jane Weaver has become a known name on this blog. With the albums 'Modern Cosmology' (2017) and 'Loops In The Secret Society' (2019) she has found a place on the blog and on .No's radio show 'Kairos' that is broadcasted each first Thursday of the month on Concertzender.

With Flock Jane Weaver writes that she was finally able to make the album she had always wanted to make. I do not know what that means, as an artist should always be able to make the album he or she wants to make. Theory may not equal practice of course.

What kind of album is Flock, if it is that different? Listening to it several times by now, my judgement is that it's an album where psychedelia meets a modern form of folk without any fear to sprinkle some modern dance influences or late 70s disco like Bee Gees rhythm guitars and Donna Summer breathing in singing, whatever way you like to look at it, over some of the songs. Flock is a mix of many things.

Listening to a semi-funky track like 'The Revolution Of Super Visions' I can imagine that it may not have been the outside world holding Jane Weaver back, instead she held herself back. That this is a kind of track she did not dare to make before, afraid of what the world would think of her. She doesn't any longer and the result is a danceable track that is credible as well. Nothing is overdone, nothing is laid on there too thick. The result is a fairly unique record not fitting in with any of the usual gangs.

Jane Weaver is using a lot that you will find sounding familiar without ever treading on paths well worn out from use. She manages to take familiar elements and melt that into pieces that become an integral part of her own album. Using them to turn them into parts of songs that are totally hers and no one else's. The effect can be two-sided: to become captured and alienation, on the same day as well. I have to be in the mood for Flock. When I am, Jane Weaver takes me on a cosmic trip on which everything is possible. If not I'm left behind totally estranged from Flock with no way in. The former happens more often but I have noticed the opposite a few times by now.

One thing speaks for Flock all the time. Jane Weaver does not hold back, she does not relent. Flock goes all the way. In the electronics, in the rhythms, in the voices moving in and out all over the place. Again, after listening to Flock intensely several times, if I understand her comment about the record correctly, it must be that she left or allowed no restraints on herself to hold her back. This explains to me the exuberant songs, songs that are so much alive, on the album. Songs that are allowed to flow like smoke does under windless, high pressure. They're not going anywhere, they are everywhere, all over me. Or, like the tentacles of a giant squid pawing me all over. Surrender and this album is so pleasant.

Wo.

You can listen to and order Flock here:

https://janeweaverfire.bandcamp.com/album/flock

or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g