{"product_id":"childqueen","title":"Childqueen","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e* For the Bandcamp 7\" exclusive that comes with the Peach vinyl, head here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKadhja Bonet’s second album, Childqueen— now out on Fat Possum records— is \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003esomething of a Hero’s Quest. In the opening Procession, above a muted drummer’s march, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ean unseen oracle announces to you, the listener: “every morning is a chance to renew, a \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003echance to renew.” This is your first clue, setting you upon a path not to treasure, nor a \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003egrail, nor even a long lost love, but highest of all, what Kadhja has christened the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“childqueen,” that innermost self that you were truthfully and instinctively before the press \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eof the world came crushing in. As with her 2016 debut The Visitor, the songs on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eChildqueen are never casual, never ditties. Instead they invite us into a world not wholly \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eour own, a half-mythical atmosphere where past and future meet in a parallel, yet \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003efaraway, present. Acting as a sort of diffuse chanteuse, Kadhja’s almost painfully lovely \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003evoice achieves what can only be described as ambient song. Particularly in songs like \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDelphine and Nostalgia, we hear the jazzier intricacies of the vocal melodies brushed soft \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eat the edges, at times so soft they vaporize into pure mood, or merge with other \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003einstruments or with backing vocals that seem emanate from celestials bodies. And the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003einstruments— played mostly by the polymathic Bonet herself— mix the cinematically \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eand classically orchestral with the noticeably more synthetic. On tracks like Thoughts \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAround Tea or Another Time Lover, flutes, violins, guitars, drums, and bells share or trade \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethe stage with acousmatic warbles, whooshes and lines, each gently couching the contours \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eof the others. The result is a soundscape the listener sinks into, a sound that combines \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003esofter enchantments with an ever-listenable experimentalism, unplaceable in genre and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003edecade from beginning to end. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eDespite its soft tones however, despite its listenability, Childqueen challenges us as much\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eas Kadhja’s self-description: “I don’t like calling myself an artist. I don’t like calling myself a\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003esinger— or even a musician.” This isn’t just paradox. Kadhja came to music early through a\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003emaniacally rigorous classical training in her childhood, mastering the violin and viola, in\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eaddition to picking up flute, guitar, and formal composition. But she abandoned classical\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003emusic for wilder groves, and credits what she now creates as springing from a place of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eintuition and candid self-reflection rather than theory or her academic past. The Kadhja\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ethat leads us through Childqueen is unyielding, truth-seeking, and even mildly\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003emisanthropic, dismayed by humanity’s talent for self-deception. She urges us to do better.\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eThese urges may come in rebuffs to our daily thoughtlessness, from the possible love\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003esacrificed to business sense in Thoughts Around Tea to the caustic calls from the title track:\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e“what’s the matter, don’t you got a man, to tell you what you’re worth to him? Where you been\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eat Childqueen?” At other points, her tone turns imploring, as in Delphine, or encouraging\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eas in Second Wind’s reminder that “sometimes I forget, moss grows from my lips. I am fertile. I\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eam rich. I am moist and mineral.” \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe lyrics and melodic lines nudge us along a path of self-discovery— or act as\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ebreadcrumbs along her own path. Everything that you hear on Childqueen was written,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eplayed, produced, and even mixed by Kadhja, who has always produced all her own\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003emusic, insisting on a total vision that is nearly as difficult to co-create as a dream. She\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003edoes confess: “this record crushed my ego, and I’m surprised I’m still alive.” It pried her open a\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ebit, recorded over two years between performances to larger audiences brimming with a\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ecommunal spirit, and in studios scattered throughout the globe— Paris, Berlin,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eAmsterdam, London, Copenhagen, and even in hotel rooms in Barcelona and Brussels.\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eNevertheless, music remains for Kadhja Bonet a primarily solitary activity, one in which\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eshe can tender a connection with that innermost self, the childqueen. The rest of the\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eworld, if it pleases, is welcome to listen in, and join her on the quest.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Kadhja Bonet","offers":[{"title":"Compact Disc","offer_id":48100970233961,"sku":"taj1790033290496","price":9.66,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black 12\" Vinyl","offer_id":48100970266729,"sku":"rhn1790033290497","price":17.02,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/8697\/8921\/files\/childqueen_1.jpg?v=1790033295","url":"https:\/\/utensilholderfit.shop\/products\/childqueen","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}