Adela Mede - Ne Lépj a Virágra

A Closer Listen

Ne Lépj a Virágra, says Hungarian-Slovakian singer-composer Adele Mede; don’t step on the flower.  By this she means, don’t stamp out hope, or innocence, or creativity, or life.  She backs up this admonition with an album that teems with encouragement, from the multi-language singing to the invitation to her own students to participate.  The album is a collaborative effort, incorporating local musicians and friends, the most famous perhaps Martyna Basta, but names are less important than the celebration of voice and the respect for voices.  This is apparent not only in the collaborations, but in the lyrics, which begin with “Sing With Me” and end with “Sing With Us.” In like manner, Mede’s own voice is first heard unadorned, but over the course of the album is looped, layered and processed until she melts into the music.

“Sing With Me” has only three words, but grows from solo to choir, its own dream coming true.  Harmonies develop at the margins and move into the center.  The song stops and restarts, taking full advantage of the stereo field.  Echoes bubble and pop.  Voices pitch down and fade.  The words resurface in the closer, intoned in a different language; in a noteworthy mondegreen, “io sono qui” sounds like “you’re so lonely,” but the final word is translated “We.”

In the mystical “Hol A Tavasz (ft. Martyna Basta),” the singer seems to stand beneath a waterfall or beside a raging stream.  Wind chimes are as a counterpart to the watery chaos.  This is an area we would visit, if only we knew how to get there.  Perhaps the key is to sing backwards, to open the invisible gates between worlds.  “What the Heart Sees Not” grows into a wall of looped, distorted drone.  Fantasy novels agree: when people stop believing in magic, they become unable to see it.  They may even try to step on the flower, because the very belief becomes a threat.  The only words in “Nestoj Nado Mnou (ft. Wojciech Rusin)” translate as don’t stand above me; stand only with me.

In Ne Lépj a Virágra, Adele Mede has created a unique sonic world, worthy of preservation.  She has told her friends and students alike, your contributions are worth preserving too.  In doing so, she has epitomized the very nature of her project.  (Richard Allen)

For more Adela Mede, we recommend the brand new Somewhere Press compilation The Blue Hour, which includes the Mede track “Holnap.”