release date: May 30, 2023
format: digital (1 x File, FLAC)
[single rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: self-produced
label: self-released (bandcamp) - nationality: USA
Tracklist: "Walk Unfraid (R.E.M. cover)"
Single release by Lotte Kestner released via the artist's bandcamp-profile in support of #bravehood ('a community of many supporting children in emergency situations').
The original is taken from the R.E.M. album Up (1998), and the song is one of my personal all-time favourites by the great band from Athens, Georgia. Kestner is famous for making cover versions, and this one is a highly remarkable and original version by being a lo-fi stripped-down song but also a multi-layered track by the way she has made use of several tracks in the mixing of the recording - to some extent in an unusual manner in the case of Kestner covers that are often quite simple arrangements. That alone makes it a most interesting version, as she has made lots of covers using only guitar with vocal, or piano with vocal, but to hear how she maintains a minimalist expression while turning up on the arrangement-button is something new and a most welcome introduction to her soundscape.