Porteau - Water's Gate
Indie folk duo Porteau just released another single, “Penelope,” from their forthcoming debut album, Water’s Gate, slated to drop March 15.
Porteau | Photo: Allison Taylor Creative
Water’s Gate was pieced together over a span of years, as the harmonic arrangements were shaped and then layered, adding percussion, bass lines, viscous synths, steel guitar, and dampened horns. "Penelope" perfectly demonstrates the album's intricate layering.
Made up of Victoria Williams and Craig Stevenson, Porteau’s Water’s Gate was inspired by Gustave Dore’s painting Andromeda. Captivated by the painting, Williams asked Stevenson if he would help her “write music that sounded like the painting looked – cold, urgent, yet liberating.”
The album narrates the tale of the path to liberation, traveling from the birth of a Venus-like entity ascending from water to the entity’s ultimate liberation and ascension to the sky. “Penelope” is one of the phases between the first and last ascensions.
It’s a voice reminiscent of Dolores O’Riordan’s, primarily because of its striking inflection, delicious and mysterious. Yet there’s a mystical pressure to Williams’ tones that’s ineffably evocative.
Williams explains “Penelope’s” significance, “At a time where I felt powerless in certain relationships, “Penelope” was my way of saying that I could unwind myself from the pain and learn to be at peace with the fact that those I am leaving behind may not be okay.”
“Penelope” opens on vivid colors flowing into a spangled tune composed of dream-pop and alt-rock flavors, creamy, luminous, and glistening. A hefty bass line rolls through the melody, giving the music strength, as elegant iridescent colors swirl and spiral overhead, infusing the tune with nimble grace.
Shimmering guitar accents inject the harmonic flow with a tasty leitmotif, providing the music with a polished sheen, as Williams’ penetrating brogue, exotic and Celtic-flavored, moves overhead on nuanced timbres and elusive textures of velvety-tanged tones. It’s a voice reminiscent of Dolores O’Riordan’s, primarily because of its striking inflection, delicious and mysterious. Yet there’s a mystical pressure to Williams’ tones that’s ineffably evocative.
“Penelope” is lit, but not in the sense of being a grand pop song. Rather it’s immanent and transcendent, sonically gorgeous, like a song one would expect to hear while visiting the angelic abode called The Empyrean.
