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Baker's Dozen

An Exchange Of Feelings: Felicia Atkinson’s Baker’s Dozen
Alex Rigotti , August 17th, 2022 09:32

Soon to play at Portugal’s Semibreve Festival with Violeta Azevado, Felicia Atkinson guides Alex Rigotti through thirteen eclectic albums that have informed her musical practise the most

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Low - I Could Live In Hope

I must say, I really love their latest album – I enjoyed every minute it. The one before that was twisted and very strange, it’s an amazing album. But this one, there is something of a beginning that really touched me: it’s like a manifesto of what’s going to happen next in their music. I love the almost threatening dimension, you know, it’s like they’re saying beware! to everybody.

Low told me you can be slow in music, and steady. My voice, when I play, it’s always the same. I just have one way of talking in my records. Low, I always feel it’s the same, but it’s completely different. I always have their songs in my mind, the way Mimi Barker plays those drums, it’s like a heartbeat. And also, the choir: when they sing together, there is something about these harmonies. They try to find a harmony, but they are still very worried about everything. It’s like, the world is terrible, but we need to find some light and it’s different for each person.

‘Lullaby’ and ‘Lazy’ are songs I can play every day, really. And I love the demos – there is a demo of ‘Lullaby’ in the box of demos they did that is amazing. I always think about ‘Lullaby’, and something comes to my mind. It’s like a beacon: a light I hear, and it gives me energy to do some music.

There’s this sentence that says: “Lullaby was not supposed to make you cry.” It’s such a beautiful line. Crying in music is something I find interesting – we talked about humour, but I also think crying is often a way to be moved by music and a way to express something that is close to sadness, but not completely. It’s something very sacred, but that could also be irreligious. I think they are, Low, but you don’t have to be to understand what they do: a dedication, a special way of thinking, that music is something precious in what they do.

I did a record called A Readymade Ceremony, and the idea of a ceremony, of playing music as a narrative of personal involvement to something bigger – whatever it is, could be nature – it’s what I hear in their music.