It’s not our first review of a Kitchen Label product – and it won’t be the last. The reason for that is quite simple: the label’s releases have set a remarkable standard of sleeve design and the combination of music and photography. Their latest release A Little Fable by the Kitchen Label founders April Lee and Ricks Ang as Aspidistrafly comes as a beautiful book Edition. Following the wonderful 7” design of Fjordne’s Charles Rendition album it’s another special format to present their collection of songs and other instrumental compositions.
Sea of Glass is the first obviously processed work on that album and this is not the only reason why this piece stands out. A steady pulse that never returns on the album again leads through the whole composition. Also Language of Flowers and Blue Bonnet of the Seven Stars are even droning processed works. Most of the other pieces are songs by April Lee entwined by a lovely instrumentation often reminding of Haruka Nakamura’s compositions (not just on his Twilight album, but certainly as April Lee also contributed some vocal elements on that album, it sometimes is ‘the same band’ that we already know from this beautiful photo book album by Nakamura). From my personal point of view Wooden Room is the most impressive piece of A Little Fable – with its rhythmical experiments and the slight processing it is a highly interesting combination of elements that make me want to listen through it again and again. I don’t want to end with this small review without mentioning the introduction of Dear Sylvan which is a beautifully played violin solo. Lovely.
As I didn’t talk about the breathtaking photographs yet, I just have to do it right now. The collection of pictures that have been printed in the book is just brilliant to say the least. So A Little Fable is another perfectly designed Kitchen Label release and I’m really looking forward to their upcoming works. If they ‘just’ keep up their current quality it will be beautiful again.
