Italian music knows how to surprise and seduce. However, the Italian indie-pop project Corner in Bloom decided to go further. I listen to their new album “Tiny Apartment” and there is a feeling that Italy packed a suitcase, got on a bicycle and went to Amsterdam – and then forgot where it left the keys to the house. In the musical texture of the recording, Mediterranean melancholy embraces the dampness of northern canals, and the expressive gesture – the Protestant restraint. And all this coexists naturally, because it could not be otherwise.
Following a series of singles that served as a preface to the release, the project presented a completed sound story recorded in pastel intonations. “Tiny Apartment” is a whole emotional space in which the tracks live. And the guys chose a figurative title. A small apartment as a metaphor for inner being: limited and, in its own way, infinite. Corner in Bloom have long worked with the aesthetics of lo-fi texture and multilayered vocal harmony. In their music one can also catch folkloric reflections, barely tangible, like the smell of the first spring flowers of Tuscany.
On “Tiny Apartment” everything reaches maturity: the sound is more precise, the mood in the tracks is more spacious, and the intonation more confident, while keeping the fragility that makes their music attractive. The album moves deliberately unhurriedly. Indie-pop without gloss and stadium scale. But instead – luxurious intimacy and chamberness. The melodies do not press, and the vocal flies from assertive to somnambulistic. The production is delicate, which requires either great experience or very fine hearing Corner in Bloom, apparently, have both. Nine tracks are arranged step by step – with logic, breathing, and pauses between stops.
The opening “Tiny Princess” sounds like morning in the silence of an old city – light, slightly scattered, with gentle vocal intonation. Everything breathes with soft reality: drums rustle, keyboards float in the soft rhythm of the guitar. A refined, delicate and at the same time love-filled song – its sound fascinates. It becomes a smooth transition to the track “Please Don’t Go.” Its bright, pastel sound is built on the contrast of warmth and longing. Barely audible drums, piano and velvety vocals enhance the lo-fi charm framed in neat modern aesthetics. And if someone dedicated such a song to me, I would not go anywhere. Thus, “Argo” is an imaginative and cinematic track – minimalist rhythm collides with transparent synths, creating the effect of a camera slowly gliding after the hero. The very title refers to the ancient myth of the Argonauts’ voyage for the Golden Fleece, and in the song this becomes a metaphor of inner search – for silence and recognition. The vocal sounds slightly detached, sometimes goes into a soft falsetto, but under this fragility one feels tension.
But every journey runs into some space – and “Blue Loft” is just about that. The blue attic as a place where one comes after the road: dusty light, silence that remembers something. The reverb is slightly longer, the guitar trembling and gentle. The music of Corner in Bloom, in all its fluid and non-conflict extensiveness, seems to listen to silence, sometimes descending to a whisper. It is extraordinarily beautiful in purely acoustic terms, largely due to the excellent sound. It is deep and multidimensional in content. Everything says that the guys possess outstanding musical intelligence and the ability to subordinate their individualities to the realization of a common artistic task.
A graceful example of this unity becomes “Calliope” – the muse of epic poetry, reinterpreted in a chamber key. A loud name for a quiet song, and in such contrast there is conscious irony. The vocal harmonies are layered and shimmering. One feels the breath of sea wind, a pinch of neoclassicism and a light folkloric charm. The instrumental lines lead a dialogue between themselves, and the vocal remains the soft center of attraction.
The final sections of piano and violin gracefully lead to the track “Dami’s Lullaby,” which is little like a lullaby. The playful rhythm and mischievous mood make you want to jump and clap along to the song. After such an active dream, one can go for a walk in the city, for example in Amsterdam. And the tracks “Amsterdam (By Bike)” and “Amsterdam (Walking)” offer such an opportunity. They are a small urban diptych. The Italian project found its soul on Dutch streets. By bike – faster, more accidental, with flashing canals and wind in the face. On foot – slower, more attentive, with details that you usually ride past. Two tempos, two different solitudes – and both real. Together they work like a short documentary novella: one place, two speeds. And after all the roads, myths, foreign cities and foreign names – the album returns home. “The Same Old Smile” closes the album with a warm ellipsis. The trembling melody smoothly dissolves in the last chord, leaving a feeling of completeness and light sadness – like a smile you don’t want to part with.
“Tiny Apartment” by Corner in Bloom does not take up much space. But when you close the door and turn off the light – you realize that this is exactly where you want to be and live.
Voxwave Magazine: Music, Culture, Interview, Fashion 