I thought I’d heard every reason for an artist writing a song, but this is the first time that a ‘near-death’ experience was offered.
Come to think of it I have written in the past about artists who had suffered weird and wonderful, sudden and potentially life-changing injuries, and Ren Harvieu (who was jumped on by a friend who didn’t know she was on the other side of a hedge, breaking her spine, hospitalising her for many months and putting back her career by five years) immediately springs to mind.
But in Peri Winkle’s case the outcome could have been much worse.
Firstly, let’s sort out who she is exactly, which is an Oslo based artist with Australian roots with the real name of Claudia Cox, which sounds like a perfectly acceptable artist name to me. It didn’t do Courteney any harm after all.
But let’s call her Peri and bear in mind that a periwinkle is a flower that is toxic but conversely also has some medical benefits. Hm.
Peri had a near death experience in 2021, which is the background, and inspiration of her solo project and song for her debut single ‘Ouroboros’. And the incident that almost saw her off wasn’t one in which she was jumped on. Rather, while practicing acrobatics, she fell 10 feet head first onto a stage floor and had an ‘out of body experience.’ Fortunately she did recover at length (“a complete rewire” is her description of the bionic woman) and is clearly proud of her resilience as she should be.
Consequently, the song is, she says,” a manifestation of change, of new you meets old you in the eyes of death and rebirth.” (The ‘ouroboros’ by the way – the oldest allegorical symbol in alchemy – represents the concept of eternity and endless return). And yes, there have been previous songs with that title, believe it or not.
I should rename this blog Nordipedia.
Two things before we start. Firstly, she describes ‘Ouroboros’ as “a genre bending sound world with tastes of glitchcore, satanic electroglitch pop, pop, hyperpop, rap, metal, existentialism, feminism, electronica, new music, and experimental near-death glitchcore pop”.
Woah! Hold the horses. There’s too much going on here. Feminism is a musical genre? Apparently it is (what do I know?) but that makes it self-limiting in the distribution sphere I’d have thought. Pop, rap and metal are so far apart they might be living on different continents. And what on earth is satanic electroglitch pop?
I have to be honest, all that made me a little wary.
But then I see that she has co-written at least one song with Norway’s classical/hardcore/prog rock institution, Major Parkinson, is listed as a current member as a violinist/live vocalist and performed with them as recently as August of last year (although she hints on her website that her injuries might have caused her to stand down from the violinist role for a while as she couldn’t use her arms properly).
Now I see where she might be coming from and I’m feeling much more comfortable.
So let’s get down to brass tacks.
Ignore most of what you read above because ‘Ouroboros’ doesn’t sound anything like it. Let’s synthesise it down to rap, pop and art-pop flavoured with a sprinkling of glitch in the form of its unpredictability, elongated rapid drum patterns and a little vocal distortion. Forget metal and all the mumbo-jumbo.
Singing with an Essex accent (it’s popular in both Newtown Sydney and Oslo’s Grünerløkka right now I hear) Peri sounds like a cross between Polly Scattergood when she’s taken her medication (think ‘Nitrogen Pink’ or ‘I hate the way’ for example) and Megan Thee Stallion on helium. Or on Cardi B if you prefer…)
The three and a half minute track moves at a fair pace from beginning to end, it transitions between those styles as it goes along, it’s melodic and catchy enough to get airplay from the right DJ on Radio 6 or even Radio 1 without sacrificing street credibility and while I left this review too late to access the lyrics from her electronic press kit from what I can pick up it has the appropriate gravitas.
Indeed, the contrast between the deep subject matter and the delivery will grab you straight off.
Take it from me, you’ll like it.
‘Ouroboros’ was released on 24th February, digitally only, via her own label SLIME Records. No word yet on an EP or album, but there are channels by way of which you can keep an eye out for that.
Find her on:
Website: https://periwinkle.no
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/periii.winkle/
