Venessa Nolan – Burn

Reviews

Amuzine CD Of The Week

by Stephen Segerman, 5 March 2001

Commuters driving in and out of Cape Town via the Table Bay Boulevard recently have been treated to a huge Musica billboard featuring a black and white, close-up photo of a moody, attractive, hair-swept face alongside the words “Venessa Nolan” and “Burn”. That’s some impressive and confident opening publicity for an unknown, new SA artist, but sometimes you really do have to make sure that the public is made well aware of certain important things. One of them is that ‘Burn’ is the new, personal and powerful, 38-minute, 10-song, debut album from the lady in the picture. It may not be of musical interest to some of those drivers, but if you are someone who has been noticing and appreciating the marked increase in the number of South African rock singer-songwriters who are releasing intelligent albums aimed at heads and hearts, but not feet, then this billboard carries some very good news.

Venessa Nolan is a Cape Town-based pianist singer-songwriter who has quietly emerged after a broad musical education at UCT Music School and Bellville’s Contemporary Music School. She then spent four skills-honing years as pianist on a handful of Mike McCullagh’s pop/rock revues (’60 and 70-Something’, ‘Stage Fright’), and a further three-year “apprenticeship” at the Silver Tulip Studios in Camps Bay. Three of the songs on ‘Burn’ – ‘Losing Control’, ‘I Won’t Give Up’, and ‘With You’ – were produced earlier by Nude Girl Theo Crous. ‘With You’ immediately caught the attention of Barney Simon at 5FM and other campus station playlisters. So Venessa headed back to the Sunset Studios and completed the ‘Burn’ album, this time alongside producer Jurgen von Wechmar.

These are all Venessa’s own compositions and although the track ‘With You’ did get decent airplay, this album is not remotely a few potential hits with some filler. Instead, ‘Burn’ is an accomplished and mature album with 10 slow-burning, sensitive and solid ballads, all built around a strong piano writing and playing core, and intelligent arrangements. There’s plenty of anxiety, anger, hope and joy in songs like ‘Haunted’, ‘Fragile’, ‘Glorious Gem’, and the infectious ‘Emptiness High’, and worthy contributions from the backing musicians, specially Wayne Pauli on emotive guitar, supporting keyboard flourishes from Nicolette Strachan and restrained and empathetic drum and bass from Carl Treunich and Dave Adamson.

‘Burn’ takes its own sweet time, and each song’s personality reveals itself gradually. There’s a touch of Michelle Breeze’s moody lyrics and vocals (‘Don’t Drag Me Down’), and a few traces of Lesley Ray Dowling’s recent sound and style as well, which is not surprising as Von Wechmar also worked on Dowling’s ‘Clear’ album. Combine the best elements of those two angsty Cape rock divas and you get some idea of what Venessa has achieved with ‘Burn’.

This manifests itself best on the stirring, closing track, ‘Why’, whose poignant lyrics, including – “Is there anyone that listens to the news when all you hear is senseless killings. Is there a light at the end of darkness, is there a reason for this?” – echo the hopes and fears of many South Africans these days over some sombre piano and distant, guitar groans. Venessa Nolan clearly has the ability to pour out songs that are beautiful, inspiring, and achingly personal; yet which grow more, instead of less, intriguing as ‘Burn’ slowly insinuates itself into your heart, which it definitely did to mine. A small, brave, stunning, billboard-sized album. 

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SA Rock Digest Top 30 Albums Of The Year 2001

By Stephen Segerman, December 2001

‘Burn’s’ grey cover photo of Venessa’s fringe-covered face first appeared on a huge billboard on a Cape Town highway at the same time as behind it, a massive fire swept across Table Mountain, creating a powerful backdrop and unintentional “brand” awareness. These ten original ballads introduced us to an impressive new singer, songwriter and pianist. Dark and exquisitely broody, these songs swirl around in the mind and tingle in hidden recesses of the brain, playing symphonic bedsit rock on your heartstrings. Songs like, ‘Fragile’, ‘Losing Control’, ‘With You’ and ‘Emptiness High’ followed each other onto the radio and into the charts. But, singles aside, this ‘Glorious Gem’ of an album, makes it clear that we have a major new talent on our hands. And thanks to her emotive piano playing, ‘Burn’ qualifies as our ‘Unplucked’ album of the year.

Venessa had quite a few achievements in the year of 2001, including:

• ‘Burn’ rated as 5th best Album of 2001 by SA Rock Digest.
• ‘Fragile’ rated as 13th best Song of 2001 by SA Rock Digest.
• ‘Emptiness High’ rated as 48th best Song of 2001 by SA Rock Digest.