She is our heat antidote, our summer hiatus, our white-puckered landscape. Alexa Wilding sings to a powdery hillside, her music eternal and wintry cold. Her voice, bewitching in its chill, makes her ever powerful and she reigns over the hardened world at her feet.
“Black Diamond Day” sews to keep warm, watching in quiet alarm as the doorjamb freezes over. A sinewy guitar knits a melodious cloak, and a cloud of electronic froth drifts like smoke from a fire that has been out for ages. Wilding’s voice is tall; a snow-laden evergreen stands brave despite its willowy build. It rises until losing itself in the sky, blanket-thick and grey.
In “Saturn” Wilding’s guitar is luminous, the sharp glint from a skate’s blade. Aimless in direction, the skater meanders over a narrow pond, shaving words (“I refuse to love you too”) in the thick crust. Wilding’s voice stares from the pond’s edge, oddly sinister, damning the warm breath emitted by the heaving skater. He sheds his coat and Wilding shivers, her voice a soft gale of envy.
Wilding plays TT The Bear’s on Saturday, July 17th. Tickets are $12; mittens will not be sold.