For Triangle

“The recording has been quite a journey, taking me through 4 different houses, 5 guitars, 3 keyboards, 25 ups, 72 downs, 1052 words, 3 sound cards, 2 computers, 2 microphones, approximately 312 eggs and about 752 days off.”

A subtle and brilliant blend of folksy pop, sweet harmonies, dabs of glockenspiel, the whole wrapped up in intricately woven rhythms, Joe Galen’s debut full-length album For Triangles will transport you to comforting and intimate places with childlike ease. He takes wicked delight in starting from natural and acoustic sounds, and using technology to turn them into something that shares the same qualities, but through metamorphosis becomes denatured, angular and electronic.

Triangles are the epitome of geometric stability, symbol of strength, of home, of a sense of direction, of determination, of penetration. They also create a mirror effect, the object of desire reflected in the eyes of a third party igniting lust where there was none, or the matchmaker who in spite of himself trapped in the middle of something he hadn’t anticipated: one plus one equals three…Like the tip of an arrow, Cupid’s bliss or deadly weapon, triangles are ambivalent creatures, just like Joe Galen who loves twinkles and dirt, equally.

Joe Galen’s songs are an elaborate blend of sensitivity, energy, depth and delicate strangeness. The simplicity of his writing is charming and fresh, contrasting quite sharply with the complexity of the arrangements, creating a truly original and personal world. His lyrics are visceral and unsophisticated, as if they were words whispered in bed or jotted down in a diary. It’s as if songs were the place where one could say everything that one has never dared to utter out loud. Lonely king of an almost pastoral domain that is yet so very intensely violent, delivering poetry as lighthearted as it is melancholic.