As if Bohr’s quantum physics, Von Trier’s human fragility or Christian Andersen’s tales were not enough, also the Danish Puce Mary seems to explore imagination and possibility; almost inseparable, even. The creation of mental spaces or the synesthesia generated by her art are results as natural as inevitable, of those who decide to break with a familiar, comfortable and soothing reality. In fact, all antagonistic elements in the work The Drought, possibly one of the most challenging records we heard in 2018 – and a strong reason to keep following it in the next ones.
A member of the Posh Isolation collective, one of the epicenters of European new music, she gathers from a magnetic field of noise and static electricity as the habitat of a music, which for lack of another term, one would simply define as transgressive. Listening to it and its hot perceptions, may indicate a reinterpretation per se, of so many other incarnations from noise to industrial; talk about Whitehouse, establish links with Wolf Eyes and never forget the huge contribution of Throbbing Gristle to all this nursery. Names that make sense to understand in a first approach, but that fade, with subtlety, when the real listening advances – and eventually gets lost in this labyrinth of tension and suspense that the artist carefully builds.
Even if the starting point is through an atonal and disconcerting aesthetic, one cannot limit an album like The Drought to a five-letter imprint alone; and if there is life beyond that noise imprint, Puce Mary materializes it. And it is a labor of composition and empathy, knowing how to extract sensations and provoke something unknown through raw sounds. Nothing comes gratuitously, and each moment seems to assume itself as a vital form in a whole. Even the cover of The Drought is highly seductive and profane (in equal proportions), worthy of an enigmatism that only tends to grow with the plunge into this black hole.
On stage, she shares an experience close to a ritualistic nature. She appears armed with extensive machinery and a presence full of urgency – opening cracks all around. It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome her back. NA