Much of Peder's And He Just Pointed to the Sky sounds like the eccentric score for an independent movie: On "Would You," the flat, plucked-out notes and ghostly piano sound like they await a Tom Waits vocal. Instead, Nino Moschella surfaces, his vocals bringing the longing in Peder's music out of the abstract. Moschella, a Prince-emulating soul singer whose multi-layered vocals also recall Jamie Lidell and D'Angelo, can moan with the best of them. "If I called in need / would you answer me?" he asks after numerous drowsy falsetto repetitions of "Would you, baby?"
Moschella's voice only appears on about two minutes of a track three times that long, leaving room to contemplate the atmosphere, of which Peder provides plenty. Peder, a Dutch musician whose other pursuits include hip-hop production, photography and acting, makes a debut of sorts on And He Just Pointed to the Sky. Many of the disc's tracks are instrumental: They're ghosts waiting to inhabit the plotlines of a movie by David Lynch or Alan Ball. It's a lullaby of an album — with "Would You" as a highlight — that helps affirm just how bizarre and beautiful life is.
Listen to yesterday's 'Song of the Day.'
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