We’re a little behind with this one but it was worth the wait. I’m sure you’ll think so, too.
Bianca Nisha is a Danish artist writing and performing cello-driven pop (with a fair bit of piano as well) “where fragility and strength coexist.” We’ve encountered several harp wielders before but I think this is the first upfront cello, an instrument I’ve developed a soft spot for somehow, even though Bianca makes hers sound like a synthesiser here at times.
She says her new single, ‘River’, “channels that haunting blend of beauty and danger—like a current pulling you further, and deeper” and is her most direct and energetic track to date.
The subject is being swept along by something unstoppably destructive. Funnily enough, the previous review was of Helena Montgomery’s ‘As the river flows’, but that was more of a nostalgic trip down yesteryear’s electro-synth scene, not one down the rapids.
It isn’t clear exactly what the river is a metaphor for. Hang on a minute, what did I just write there? It sounds like that classic tongue twister from the Scottish Football League match results – ‘East Fife 4; Forfar 5.
Let me rephrase it. It isn’t clear for what the river is a metaphor. That’s better.
One weird idea I got that is that she is referring to an admirer that has become a stalker. If so, whoever he is (we’ll assume it’s a he), he’s been running into her blood, her heart. He’s creeping under her skin.
She’s “not sure if I’m a sinner”, there’s “a thread of you winding around me” and “it’s too late to unwind…we’re intertwined.”
Up to that point at least I got the impression this might be a case of actually falling for a stalker, a strange manifestation of Stockholm syndrome.
If not, why would she worry that she’s a ‘sinner’?
Even if I’m way off beam here, kudos to the artist that can write a song that can even stimulate such interpretations.
Put together entirely acoustically, without any electronic input that I can hear and with a chorus solely of powerful vocals that showcases her particular abilities in the higher vocal ranges ‘River’ is both unusual and a notably classy piece of work.
Continues after the Spotify link.
This release predates Bianca’s second album, out on October 24th, and a November release tour in Denmark.
Find her on:
Web: https://www.biancanisha.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61566746400515
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biancanishamusic/
