Fismoll - At Glade (2013)

About two years ago a friend sent me a song described "You must listen. The guy is Polish, two years younger than we are and he will break your heart". Guess what? He didn't. But he impressed me deeply and I was happy while returning to those few first covers and self-written songs.

In 2013 Fismoll released his first album. A nineteen-year-old, releasing a really nice independent music is not a common thing in Poland. I liked the album but being very much into totally different music at the time, I didn't even think of writing about it.

Quite recently though, I found out that Fismoll was coming to my-adopted-city and since for a long time I had longed to experience some live music, I decided to give it a go. And oh wow. Seeing him in my big, ugly city, mesmerizing a HUGE audience (seriously, the club in which Anathema usually plays and nearly as full!) I was once again shocked that such a talent can gain such recognition in less than two years of work. And he deserves more, hence these words.

Listening to Fismoll is like entering a really intimate world full of subtle feelings, experiences of beauty and little joys. It’s hearable on his debut At Glade, but even more during the concerts. There is purity, simplicity and honesty of Scandinavian culture in it. If you close your eyes, you can feel warm rays of sun on your skin, the pain of the shortness of cold summer. You hear a river slowly passing by and grass murmuring at glades, especially in Trifle and Time of Glimmers.

Some of the songs are also filled with playfullness and youthfulness, e.g. Let's Play Birds (the song by which I got to know him) and The Soldier from the upcoming second album. And what I really like about Fismoll is that by no chance you would say he's so young. Somehow he manages to escape the pathos-childishness of the lyrics (oh, how jealous is a nineteen-year-old-me-of-the-past), even though he sings a lot about lost love and the pain of a feeling being.

But there is also Alcest’y dreaminess and hardly tamed streams of pain and joy. Well, if the Alcest was British in expressing its emotions. Well, if Alcest focused more on playing like in Sur l'océan couleur de fer. Well, listen to Look At This, anyway. Although to me, the most beautiful songs on the album are Flowering and Let Me Breathe Your Sigh, both using a similar melody and drowning in melancholy. Oh, I cried.

And since it's December, grey and horrifingly Christmasy, it's good to stop being grumpy and start thinking. Nothing better to do this, than a big cup of cocoa and Fismoll's music.

And once you’ve listened to Fismoll, be sure to check out his gifted younger sister. She supports him by playing cello, but also sings like an angel. And she recorded a few covers of her favourite songs, really delightfully. The music genes are strong in their family.