Tulle (Norway) – Needles (single/future album track)

I’ve been privileged in the past to review two songs that have some relevance to this latest single, ‘Needles’, by Tulle which is taken from her ‘larger project’ later in the year, one that, she told us previously, “is intended to bring the sum of the circus and all that it stands for and represents to the attention of the masses whose lives are much more hollow and one dimensional without it.”

The first of those songs was Ambage’s ‘Blank Vision’ from 2019, a stunning rocker of a song and video about having a panic attack, which is also the subject of Tulle’s song.

The second was Ljug Aldrig’s beautiful ‘Seashells’, (featuring Elliphant) in which, towards the end, his love for her expires as a flatline.

Never knowingly outdone by anyone Tulle introduces her own song about anxiety, self doubt and the impact of a panic attack with what sounds like a tachycardic pre-flatline on a heart monitor although it could equally be an alarm going off, either in a room or in her own head.

She says she wanted the whole production to have a feeling of impending doom and that’s the immediate sensation you get, as if you’ve accidentally wandered into a house on Elm Street on Halloween and someone mentions they thought the saw Freddy in the neighbourhood.

Or you’re the last survivor in a Final Destination film and you’ve been lured onto the last ride of the day on the world’s oldest rollercoaster, which hasn’t been serviced for a decade.

It’s all there – the sweaty palms, the shaking hands, the racing thoughts, courtesy of discordant piano notes and chords that somehow make a tune that might accompany a voodoo ritual dance, presided over by Baron Samedi.

And you would have a panic attack if you witnessed that.

She survives the explosion of angst, which occurs twice; the second time more violently than the first, and then seems to go into a recovery mode until she is suddenly cut off. What does that mean? That it all proved to be too much?

Forever challenging, innovative and pushing the envelope as far as it will go, Tulle is a shining light on the alt/indie scene in Norway and there is no one else like her that I know of, either there or anywhere else. You wouldn’t book for little Fifi Trixibelle’s birthday party, mind, whether or not she likes circuses.

I would love to see her perform this song live.

And those doleful brown eyes are too much to handle.

(Continues after the Spotify link)

If you are in Norway her next show is at Vaterland in Oslo on May 29th. “Welcome to the circus” she says.

Find her on:

Website: https://www.tullemusic.com/