preliminary linernotes for tent sessions volume II

The Tent Sessions Volume II

Where do these haunting tapes come from? From which vault were they uncovered? We can hardly date these recordings that obviously make no use of noise reduction. Nor can we locate their origins.

All one can say is that these painfully beautiful songs, as performed by Sibyll Kalff in her very own fragile singing voice and skillfully accompanied by Stefan Bohnenberger on acoustic guitar, come from the land and time of great improvised song recordings. It is hard to believe that they were recorded only a few years ago in an improvised tent inside a friend's apartment.

Sibyll takes us on a personal journey with her music, just like a classic songwriter would, but what sounds like written songs is "instant composing" out of the very moment. These songs don't refer to travelling as we are used to in form of raod songs or raod movies. In her work as a visual artist, she creates imaginary desert landscapes and works with her own and deceased family's passports, turning them into transit documents from real and imaginary journeys. Such are her songs, which speak to us from places close but impossible to reach. This music comes from the campfires of a lonely traveller's mind and it was recorded in the freshness of its creation.

Being a home-recording and studio artist who hardly ever performs in public, Sibyll makes some of the loneliest music one could possibly listen to. These tunes come from a desert but not a deserted place. It's a colourful desert and a great place to get lost. Lonely are the brave - as the title of a classic western movie suggested. Sometimes it's indeed the lonely who prove to be the bravest. Following a long tradition in folk music, Sibyll Kalff speaks about loneliness without getting lost in despair. This may sound like common sense, given the fact that most artists are loners at work. So how does she do it? How can one sing about melancholia without overexposing a vulnerable state of mind?

There is no sentiment, no sign of extroverted melancholia here, and even the experienced listener may find it difficult to name but one contemporary artist who works in the exactly same field. Sibyll invokes a unique blend of song and improvisation that does not meet with any existing school or style.

(c) daniel kothenschulte 2006

Tent Sessions Volume 2