Mia Doi Todd - Gea

Mogstars: 8/10Mia Doi Todd must win prizes for being a most impenetrable artist, her website is a single page, the myspace profile seeming to exist upon the bear bones and a wikipedia entry that barely makes it past “stub” status. But behind this mysterious figure lies an album as welcoming as any you will hear this year, blending gently plucked guitar strings with classically trained vocals and fusing traditional and eastern songwriting techniques into a warm, affable record that will draw you into a world of mystery and splendour. After releasing her first album while graduating form Yale, _Gea_ marks the six record in ten years for a woman whose career has seen her fluctuate between the clubs of New York city and the butoh theatres of Japan. Moving away from the big band and plethora of styles seen in 2005’s _Manzanita_, this latest incarnation sees a return to the guitar and piano ensemble of her early records, albeit with the variety of an increased strings presence. _River of Life/The Yes Song_ forms a ten-minute interlude that welcomes the listener in with sauntering vocals that float across the threshold with almost inaudible mystic beauty. Beneath, trance like rhythms flutter with an enchanting simplicity as mantra like lyrics catch the attention like blossom in the breeze. The result is an effortless and intoxicating track that will have you swaying and submitting before it fades into nothingness. Slightly more rousing is _Sleepless Nights_, a sultry ballad that exudes an atmosphere of campfire-side stories of loss and longing, leaving behind the barely perceptible lyrics for what is in danger of resembling a chorus. Yet for all this adventurism the basic tenets of the tunes remain the same, a sparkling splendour and captivating, ethereal track. Fusing flamenco overtones with a foreign language lamentations, _Esperar es Caro_ stands as an unusual but obvious highlight. Drawing the attention for its sheer peculiarity, this track demands attention out of admiration and amazement. Almost indescribably in tits otherworldliness the song serves to make you feel both at home and out of place, perfectly comfortably and completely baffled at the same time. It is not surprising that _Gea_ is at times an unnerving album, at times the fusion of styles veers towards the unpalatable, too out there for general consumption, the passions of the eccentric rather than the sounds of the masses. But what is far more striking is the times it gets things completely right, the times when an almost organic beauty welcomes you onto another plane of transcendental tunes. So for those who are looking to escape the holiday season and plunge into a dreamlike world of mystique, _Gea_ is just the wormhole you need.