By: Olivia McAuley
Interwoven between her ethereal phonics, Swedish musician Louise Lemón injects an edge of darkness to the single
“Thirst”, taken from her debut album Purge. The Swedish born artist’s enchanting voice and the heavy use of reverb manages to manifest visuals of a Scandinavian landscape, while a distorted bite in the sound cuts the ambience allowing the song to transcend electropop and become a driving and compelling goth hit.
The pace of the single has an almost drone-metal sensibility, and quietly builds anticipation for the emotive and power-ballad making chorus. A perfect paradox, her voice is like a sirens call, soothing and inviting you in only to suddenly disrupt the listeners hypnosis with the chorus’s raw and exulting outcrys.
Mixed by Randall Dunn (Myrkur), and the queen of metal/dark ambient crossover herself, miss Chelsea Wolfe, this latest work truly cements Lemon’s name to the roster of artists at the forefront of the ever growing genre ‘Southern California gothic’ or as she self describes ‘death-gospel’.