"Pessimist-Pop: Songs for daydreamers and everyone who wants to be one.Lolasister is a band based in Bern, Switzerland" the band laconically explains on their website.
Infinite Jest. That's not only the name of the first EP Lolasister released on June 15. It's also the name of the first single, whose video recently premiered. The name is no coincidence: The Bernese band bows to the author David Foster Wallace and his novel.
In fact, Lolasister's Infinite Jest also needs a certain cosmopolitanism, without which one may never penetrate to the core of their gentle sounds. The mélange of indie, folk and jazz doesn't hustle for attention with grand gestures. Rather, it's the subtle nuances, the slight curves that make the sound exciting.
As soft and light as the music seems, Infinite Jest's gritty side weighs heavy. The band around singer Leoni Altherr drifts into the human abyss: their songs tell of depressions and fears. Thus, in the video for Infinite Jest, Lolasister contrast the playful melody with brutal images of self-harm.
Together with the sound engineer, the band has barricaded themselves in Brittany in a barn converted into a studio. The whole sound seems shaped by the weather-beaten environment. Vintage microphones provide the old, warm sound.
Infinite Jest - both the single and the EP - hit the mark. The music is total. A perfect weave of voices and instruments that is hard to unknot. The vocals, for instance, are a match between Leoni Altherr and Sibyl Hofstetter. The keyboard man Luzius Schuler builds the framework of the melody, while Jeremias Keller on bass and Benedikt Utzinger on drums pour the foundation. But as sober as this technical analysis is, you can't tell the individual parts apart in the finished song. They merge together into something new.
(https://negativewhite.ch/video-premiere-lolasister-infinite-jest/)
Further information: http://www.hafen2.net/1-0-Programm.html?show=categories
