Maybe its her haunting refrains - no death can tear us apart – or maybe its her spiritually profound lyrics, but I'm almost certain her music can only come from a soul that has traveled a myriad universes, and loved and lost a myriad times, only to resurface, like a wave from an opposite and infinite shore, through the voice of Mirel Wagner. Wagner, who was born in Ethiopia and grew up in Espoo, Finland, has certainly been to the crossroads. At 7, Wagner, who's record label biography alludes to the fact that her family name goes back the famous composer, was given violin lessons, and at 16 she was already writing songs and shyly performing them at open mics nights in Helsinki. She was subsequently discovered by Jean Ramsay, an American music journalist living in Finland who was impressed by her talent, and the next thing she knew she was recording an album. The recordings, financed by photographer and friend of Ramsay, Aki Roukala, were completed over two days, 12 songs straight – 9 of which can be found on her upcoming debut album which was recently released in Europe on Bone Voyage Recordings, and will see its American release this March 27 on Friendly Fire Records. One of those tracks, No Death, is a tragic murder ballad in the same vein as Leadbelly's In The Pines or Townes Van Zandt's Waitin' Around to Die. It is a song about love and tragedy, but tragedy with a brilliant and dark solution. Only when you listen closer do you realize that it is a song about necromancy and never has fucking the dead seemed so romantic: well its gonna get colder/ but my love will ignite/ what was left to smoulder/ I move my hips/ in her I am home/ I’ll keep on loving/ till the marrow dries from her bones. But maybe its the dead that will love us the most – without controversy and without conditions – no death can tear us apart.
