Cool Hunting

Sometimes it takes 35 years and a few detours to finally get to where you were going. Recorded in 1970, the songs that make up Colour Green, Sibylle Baier’s intimate underground folk album, have been released for the first time on the Orange Twin label. As experimental folk they find relevance with today’s audience, a new generation seeking to unearth these artist’s inspirations, discovering a once discarded music that has new cultural resonance. This new generation of listeners has come to her and similar artists like Vashti Bunyan.

As predecessors of minimal folk artists like Devendra Banhart, their bare intimate recordings have found a new place because they provide a counterpoint to rock and indie’s current obsession with dance. Listeners are rediscovering a music that is spare, honest, and immediate.

With the exception of a few tracks, the album was recorded as vocals backed only by guitar, its roots lying not in folk in the traditional story telling sense, but rather the bare pairings of voice and instrument. The songs evoke an effortless longing, hinting at the German singer’s sense of loss and doubt, but also at hopefulness.

by Patrick Speckman

Thanks to Sean Thomas for the find.

Pick it up directly from Orange Twin or from Amazon.