Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
A patient harmony comes out of the darkness. It wants our attention and it will stop at nothing until it captures it. Percussive beats join in the volley, sliding up and down as we near a hook that is teasing us off in the distance. Like a divine signal, a melody is crying out for us to notice it, even as we get lost in textures that are so gigantic that it feels like we could be drowned in their power. Like a prophet determined to unveil their message, Ute Lemper begins to sing bittersweet verses. This is “In My Flame,” and it came to shake your heart like nothing else can this October.
Ute Lemper doesn’t play behind a producer’s whimsical experimentation in this performance but rather stands out as the burning center of the rapidly growing flames that spark up the moment we get into the muscle of the track. The bursts of harmonic potency that dot the foreground are like mines that go off without expectation, but they don’t leave us crippled by their grandiose quality. This is as bold as we’ve ever heard Lemper before, but it isn’t her foray into the world of experimental music by any stretch of your imagination.
With that said, a neo-soul influence is ever present in this song, and it doesn’t feel out of place at all. Fans of Lemper will recognize what they’re listening to even though the grooves are much more passive than we could have imagined them being in any scenario.
Here, she favors conceptualism in the arrangement over predictability, and there’s a plethora of intricacies within this song’s structure that deliberately reject the standard route of travel even when it would make for a more efficient single. This wasn’t about simplifying anything, but rather evolving Lemper’s sound into the beast that it really can be.
The drums are so posh in “In My Flame” that they create even more indulgence than the bass does. This isn’t to suggest that the bass is weaker in this version than it could have been; it’s indeed much sexier than it has to be, but in an ironic twist I think it’s a little more disciplined here than it might have been with another person helming this piece. It adds to the tonality of the finished product, but unlike most jazz tracks it isn’t the crown jewel of a flaccid EQ.
“In My Flame” is a rare case of a hybrid = matching the creative structuring of the influencing genres, and it isn’t because of conceptualism alone. Ute Lemper isn’t like the majority of the singers in her peer group; her voice isn’t chained to one particular style over another. I had thought she would work with this crossover well, but I couldn’t have ever guessed that it would go off as seamlessly as it does here. With the magic of talent in her corner, she has the makings of being a serious contender in the jazz circuit as well as in indie soul, which is more than a big deal in this age of dominant crossover entertainers.
Erik Tingelstad
