Karin Park “Blue Roses”
In prayer. In refusal. In honesty. In defiance. In violence. In realization. Swedish / Norwegian, singer songwriter and producer, Karin Park follows up on her 2015 release, “Apocalypse Pop” with new single, “Blue Roses”
In prayer. In refusal. In honesty. In defiance. In violence. In realization of an inability. Piano strikes, hard and heavy; rooted deep into the ground, count the track in stark melodic progression, compulsive; ambient-scapes, shift the stereo in uneasy builds and willfully quiet risers; intended to disquieten, rather than excite and heighten. In realization of an inability, ever present in her work; an itch become unbearable; the inability to compromise. Saturated organic, dampened by over driven current, synth sequence, pulse and reverse, merge perceptual, with tourniquet string and noise born acoustic. The inability to compromise; unable to offer the merest contrivement, to bend the knee to the fashionable bland, blah of playlist friendly, chart targeted, cynically constructed, EDM pop nothing. Vocals, verse to chorus and back, overlap in carefully crafted contrast; Karin’s vocals stood titan tall, set down the middle, though verse; arrive the chorus, floated light, left and right, hi passed and pitched up (just), deftly distorted sweet, angel lifted up on dirty wings.
And in the realization of that inability, find truth, hitherto peripheral; history retold, an evolution of influence, revisited. Cast in soft depths, framed temple, sanctified upon ancient drum; the track wells up, like an approaching army from feudal time; beat inevitable, percussion by hand, glacial drift. Lyrics arranged in riffs; straight spoken, cut by imagery and cliché re framed honest, and mantra, ‘Stay off my sacred land’; Karin’s voice, older, angrier, with beautiful bluesy rasp; gun in her hand; defiance beyond act of will, born of primal reflex not rational reaction. Revisited through gritted teeth, by embittered revision; the violence of hindsight, an embattled honesty is stumbled upon. A song opened in hushed chamber, infinite space, cloistered; whispered chant, monastic; confessional, yet confrontational; evocative of both folk verse and nursery rhyme, the first used in hope to ward off evil, the second meant to instill caution through fear ; the vignette come chorus, a prologue of dark foreboding; the most personal of prayers, set at counterpoint to world weary mantra, and hardened battle cry, ‘Stay off my sacred land’.
Great Art is not just seen or heard, it is experienced. It rises to the defining significance of an event lived. It becomes bonded to who you are, by forever altering the way in which, you perceive the world around you. The title track of Karin Park’s forthcoming EP, due out early November, “Blue Roses” is out now on all major streaming media platforms. Take a deep breath. Your world is about to change.
Twitter: @KarinPark
Featured on Best of Brash Independent Music 2018