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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Totally recommended for seventies folk enthusiasts as well as fans of contemporary singer/song-writers. , March 18, 2006
Some of us here whose proclivities gravitate towards rare psych and folk have been bemoaning the recent flurry of "buried treasures" and "lost classics". It seems a day does not go by without a new release or re-issue of a forgotten or recently discovered artist rescued from obscurity passing before our attentive eyes and drooling mouths. Sometimes the "lost classic" status is not always deserved (not everything made in the sixties and seventies that didn't receive any attention is noteworthy, somethings are better off staying buried or lost), but it's sure keeping the reissue labels and revisionist musicologists busy as they map out an ever-growing expanse of the spheres of influence on music today. It's hard to keep up and also pay equal attention to all the great music that is being made right now.
This makes me very happy on the one hand that amazing music continues to be discovered but it also drives me crazy us to see my paycheck quickly dwindling every week. Why just in the past month, I've seen re-issues from Bridget St. John, Kay Hoffman, John Jacob Niles, Kaleidoscope and Fairfield Parlour (all pretty amazing!) among others. And now on my plate are these previously unreleased home recordings of German underground folk singer, Sibylle Baier.
I must admit when I first heard this, I suspected fraud. These recordings sound almost too contemporary to have been made in the early seventies. But after doing a little research, I found out this is no fraud. These intimate recordings fully deserve their "buried treasure" status, for whatever that's worth at this point. Baier, only previously known for a song on an early Wim Wenders film soundtrack, recorded these songs in her home from 1970-73 after a "spirit-renewing" trip through the Swiss Alps. She has the warm Sunday jam and tea voice reminiscent of Vashti Bunyan, but with the more spare guitar compositions and melancholy vocal delivery of someone like Chan Marshall. In fact, I sort of wish the new Cat Power or Beth Orton records were this good! Like Bunyan, Baier shunned what could have been a successful career in order to raise a family and it's because of her son, Robby, that these recordings are being heard at all. But unlike Bunyan, these songs don't derive from a back to nature hippie-folk aesthetic, but rather they come from a more delicate fragility where life's beauty and despair are interwoven with the tiny details of daily life. Beautiful! Totally recommended for seventies folk enthusiasts as well as fans of contemporary singer/song-writers.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sibylle Baeier Melancholy Folk Gems (4.5 stars), February 26, 2006
Sibylle Baier was primarily an actress, born in Germany, and these songs-she was living in the States by then-are the result of the inspiration she drew from a certain road trip with a friend, which led her to write and sing this low-fi and quite private set of recordings between 1970 and 1973.
The first thing that might strike about these songs is the consistent sadness of their melodies, akin to the mood she had been in at the time, and the hushed yet expressive phrasing of these lyrics.
More than anybody else, this album may remind you of Vashti Bunyan, particularly her debut "A Diamond Day." Although the Bunyan's songs were less imbued of somberness, they share a certain melancholy with these tunes. Also, you may think of what Sylvia Plath might have sound like if she chose to sing rather than poetry, more through its mood than the nature of its words.
Still, the important thing is that this album, which had never been released before, presents a singer/songwriter of exquisite sensibility, sharing a very personal batch of songs that were never intended for "the public" and, perhaps due to that, conjure up an intimate and gorgeous portrait of a woman's inner life.
If you are a friend of brave and intimate Folk, you will not be disappointed with this purchase.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Contemplating the eternal evening, March 9, 2006
The appearance of a completely unexpected treasure, such as this quietly stunning album, serves as a reminder of the hidden wonders in this world. Which is a good description of its tone, in fact. Listening to these songs draws one into a wistfully austere & pure landscape, where the melancholy of the gathering twilight meshes with the secret thoughts & musings of the day, as the soul now approaches sleep in resigned yet grateful stillness. It's amazing to think that such beauty was consigned to a closet for some thirty years! We can only be thankful that it's finally available to the rest of us. A collection of astonishing emotional honesty, both stark & rich, most highly recommended!
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~ Vashti Bunyan
~ Karen Dalton
~ Karen Dalton
~ Linda Perhacs
by Sibylle Baier 
