Noa Bentor is a pretty unfamiliar name on the scene. Last year, she released her debut Love and Darkness and even though she is not yet respected, this musician is a true discovery for me. Her melancholic and romantic songs with soft and sensual vocal give me life. She is an author from Israel who released few albums via Bandcamp.
Love and Darkness is about easy, indie pop melodies with folk matrix in the style of Sibylle Baier and Vashti Nunyan. I also have to mention incredible similarity to Joanna Newsom and Laura Marling. Songs are inspired by personal love experiences and pain. Nothing is too inventive but everything is how it should be. It is a collection of interesting folk interpretations. Noa is not obsessed with what is dominating the music world today. She tries to be herself. Sometimes she doesn’t succeed. But who does?
The album centers around themes of men, unborn sons, weddings, breakups, happiness and pain. Nothing unusual, right? Still, she is honest and touching in her openness. Dichotomies between light and darkness, birth and death, pain and happiness are to be found here. Nothing is too depressive or heavy. Noa knows that love is a logical consequence of everything. Love and darkness could not exist without each other and this album proves it. In City Lights, she says Sun will rise on me, while in Love and Darkness we hear Easy to love, easy to leave.
Noa has survived the pains of being pure at heart but it is all part of maturing. After I’m Gone is the most touching song about the unborn song and Marry Me is very self-ironic and sincere. There is also a religious moment in the track called God. This is where Noa confronts her own demons. Fall in Love With Me is my personal favorite – melodic, easy and soft folk number.
Noa Bentor, I will keep my eyes and ears on you.
