Itasca – Spring
Paradise of Bachelors – 1 November 2019
By the fall of 2017, Itasca’s Kayla Cohen needed a change of venue. Personal chaos, not to mention the societal challenges of attempting to survive in a society that seemed to be poisoning the national discourse, led her to a century-old adobe house in rural New Mexico. Following the lead of artists like Georgia O’Keefe, Cohen discovered a stunning sense of inspiration from the landscape, developing a new vision of the world. Spring takes on both the season and the scarce water sources to convey a path toward new devotion.
From the opening Lily, where Kayla sees, “the pink lily flower jumping up, opening to greet the visitor in an algae-filled pond in the middle of the country surrounded by trash and people,” listeners enter a world of vision and transformation.
Discovering a sense of quiet, Cohen found a place beyond longing, where the history is not so much of this world, but of the earth. Where the echoing of steel and wood can create insights that go to the heart of who we are and what is truly important. Through the lens of Bess’s Dance one begins to understand the vision that infuses her lyrics:
Change was rushed by the refrain
Keep on dreaming of a basket
Overflowing with grain
A worn red cloth woven over the cobs
Single figure of the wild plain
Recording the album became a work infused by a variety of locations and processes. Initially, sessions were recorded on two-inch tape in Chicago with the Bitchin’ Bajas Cooper Crain engineering. Further recording was done at home on a Tascam 388, and overdubbing took place in Los Angeles with Greg Hartunian, Daniel Swire, and Marc Riordan. Dave McPeters added pedal steel, while James Elkington arranged the strings that Jean Cook added.
The high desert landscape provides a perfect metaphor for music that uncoils slowly, revealing its depths with a sense of timelessness reflecting the area where they were written. From her refuge in the Four Corners, Kayla was able to gain a sense of perspective that Los Angeles hadn’t afforded her. Between the juniper and pinion forests, she found a retreat from the noise and a sense of a deeper history.
That is the majesty of Itasca’s Spring. The music mesmerizes, guitars glide on the streams of dappled western light. Perspectives change with time and tides, yet the moments of beauty that unfold on Spring are eternal.