N NAO, Miroir: REVIEW

N NAO, Miroir (Mothland)

I’ve probably witnessed the song “Miroir” five times seeing N NAO live, but the recorded version is a completely different beast. Live, this song is inexplicably raw, as songwriter Naomie de Lorimier takes us through an intimate journey akin to reading a piece of magical realism. On the recording, the same happens, but with enough off-kilter bells and whistles — drum crashes, hypnotic looped vocals, a flurry of synths — to take you off balance. N NAO’s vocals on this mix feel like she’s singing to you alone in a darkened room floating on a cloud. It’s a whimsical sound that gives you those butterfly feelings, along with a helping of unresolved dread. But after “Portail,” a brief minimalist electro track that feels like Steve Reich fell asleep on a Moog keyboard, we get to “Miroir II,” a song that truly rests the heart rate. A harp makes its presence known, and eventually, with a number of blips, bells and bloops, the track feels like it was ripped from the Zelda universe.

These Miroir sessions are backed up by N NAO’s band of experimenters — Samuel Gougoux, Charles Marsolais-Ricard and Simone Provencher — and while most of their playing contributes to the hallucinatory atmosphere, there are a few points, especially on “Miroir II,” when it feels like the band got lost in the improvisation and just wanted to make weird sounds for 15 minutes. Then again, that is music, right? 7/10 Trial Track “Miroir II”

For more on N NAO, please visit her Bandcamp.

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