Album Review

Little Misty – ‘Nowhere Land’ [Album Review]

Highlighted by “Lost for a While,” Little Misty’s ‘Nowhere Land’ is cap-a-pie haunting, dispensing lush leitmotifs, somewhere between a rift and a revelation.

Published

12 months ago

04/26/2023

Randy Radic

Little Misty ‘Nowhere Land’ album artwork

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Montreal progressive folk band Little Misty recently released their sophomore album, Nowhere Land, a collection of divergent short stories.

Led by Kathryn Samman (vocals) and François Jalbert (guitar), Little Misty’s sound, although grounded in folk music, fuses elements of indie-rock and other stylistic flavours, offering everything from cinematic landscapes to wailing guitar solos.

Talking about Nowhere Land, Little Misty shares, “The repertoire took a more surreal path as we felt like we needed to express whatever we were going through at that moment in time, without any aesthetic limitation whatsoever.”

Recorded at Mixart Studios in Montreal, Samman and Jalbert enveloped themselves in Montreal’s finest musicians, including Tommy Gauthier (violin), Cédric Dind-Lavoie (bass), and Mark Nelson on drums.

Encompassing ten tracks, entry points on Nowhere Land include the sensuously undulating flow of “Lost for a While,” riding a soft, dreamy rhythm flavoured by a dark, posh guitar as Samman’s bewitching voice imbues the lyrics with voluptuous, slightly breathy tones.

Glittering with nursery rhyme colours, “Butterfly” travels on gentle, glowing strings, at once dreamy and effervescent with drifting hues. Samman’s whispery vocals give the lyrics delicious, sighing lustre.

“Spare me a pair of wings / And I’ll sing you a lullaby / Stand up tall and gaze up to the sky.”

Little Misty

Rolling out on dark, indie-rock tones, “Master” delivers slinky, sumptuous textures that elevate to tighter, luminous surfaces and then drop back down to the sly rhythm. Oozing mysterious savours, Samman’s voice infuses the lyrics with enigmatic timbres.

The album ends with “Lighthouse,” a slow, fluent tune featuring lusciously exhaling vocals, followed by the intimate vulnerability of Gauthier’s evocative violin, giving the tune exquisite emotional poignancy.

Highlighted by “Lost for a While,” Nowhere Land is cap-a-pie haunting, dispensing lush leitmotifs, somewhere between a rift and a revelation.