How I Loved You

Angels of Light's How I Loved You moves far from that terrain and into a zone of languid reverie, bittersweet longing, and crystalline excess. The mood resembles previous Angels of Light recordings only in that the tone of the songs is largely acoustic with a palette of oblique electronic washes and blurred sonic architectures applied for cavernous, orchestral atmosphere. Its elegance is seductive, and that seduction is necessary because the resplendent beauty Gira creates is adorned with confusion, and a melancholy celebration of all that is ambivalent in the human heart while in the grips of the purest desire: the one that wishes to possess the object of one's affection at any cost. The band is comprised of Gira on vocals, guitars, and effects; Christoph Hahn on lap and electric guitars; Lawrence Mullins on percussion; Dana Shecter on bass and piano; Birgit-Cassis Staudt on accordion, piano, and Casio; and Thor Harris on dulcimer and piano. They are joined by Bliss Blood on vocals and Kid Congo Powers on electric guitar. Gira's collaborators are so in the truest sense of the word, helping to shape a sound with no center other than the vision of the love song itself. The disc opens with "Evangeline," a song that echoes the traditional folk song in title only. This paean -- painted with a sparse piano, strummed acoustic guitar, and unidentifiable sounds -- is a requiem. As the protagonist offers his vision of the woman's beauty so still and peaceful in its "sleeping" state, aware of her unselfishness and her beauty in still life under city skies, her tenderness and innocence become the reflection of all that is present in the still-life shell that represents itself nakedly in front of the singer. He holds this picture in the grain of his voice, tracing the lips of memory in its fullness, no longer present, but gone beyond "steel door dreams."