Ready to be transported to both hopeful and ominous places while strangely encouraged to dance? Hailing from Nigeria, singer, songwriter, producer and arranger Cat Mayel presents “Free” – her latest single, and another immersive expression of the artist-dubbed “cinematic soul.” Now, let’s hit “play,” enter a sound-sculpted world steeped in a creeping unease, and talk about it (but quietly, as to avoid creatures both ferociously territorial and forever starving).
Listening, and talking about it.
“Free” begins with a low, bending siren emanating from some ancient and perhaps wooden instrument – it projects an ominous warning while floating in a sound-reflecting malaise.
Natural, tree-knocking percussion echoes from this gray and misty place, and Cat Mayel’s light, trembling, and dramatic voice shares her dismay; it reflects within these sound-crafted, smoke-obscured environs, granting a sense of space regardless of limited vision.
The percussion reminds me of Peter Gabriel’s worldly beats and sampled knuckle knocks upon found and hollow instruments, but there’s a sinister quality here implying a lurking, steadily stalking threat. And regardless of said undefined but instinctively present predator, Cat Mayel continues to sing, darting upwards, lilting downwards, at times wrapped in a somewhat mechanical harmony, always echoing into this world’s distant but unfathomable space, and always maintaining a sliver of hope before the muted sun plummets below a ring of gnarled, wilting trees.
And then, after Cat’s final, desperately sung lyric, the percussion emits its final synchronous knocks before diminishing in the unseen distance. But is it good?
“Free” is beautiful, in peril, natural, but modern and precise. It creates a world of heavy air, low vision, and impending doom. It’s sung beautifully, but with an awareness of the current locale’s precariousness. Cat Mayel’s “Free” is something different, something new, but presented as resembling the familiar while treading in the refreshingly unsafe. Ready for your new favorite boundary-pushing artist? Good, because we just found her. HIGHLY recommended.
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