One song from Katell Keineg can conjure up more comparisons to
other singers than new
sensation Meredith Brooks can rack up
Alanis- clone jokes.
Take ''Mother's Map'' from
Keineg's sophomore release, ''Jet,'' for
instance. A touch of Sinead
O'Connor, segueing into a Kate
Bush-style falsetto, and
then some clever Joni Mitchell phrasing,
even a bit of a throatier
Elisabeth Fraser or Lisa Gerrard, and finish
with a splash of ... Robert
Plant?
Keineg has heard 'em all.
''I think I've probably been
compared to every female
singer-songwriter who's ever
written music at all,'' she said during a
recent phone interview,
''sometimes even male singers, which
really amazes me. But I'm
pleased with that. If I reminded people of
the same person all the
time, I'd be really worried.''
Not to worry, then. Keineg's
roomy, sensuous ''Jet'' is one of those
discs that transcends its
origins by amalgamating them to the point
that none are overtly
recognizable. No playing the ''Spot the
Influence'' game here.
It's eerily appropriate that
Keineg's work would sound so diverse,
given that the 32-year-old
was born in Wales, raised in Brittany,
France, and now spreads her
time between Dublin and New York.
''I'm not monocultural, so
I'm never going to sound like I'm ever of
one place,'' she
acknowledged.
Nor of one ideology. Not
surprisingly for the daughter of a French
poet and a Welsh political
activist, Keineg's work touches on heady
subjects such as socialism,
feminism, matriarchal-vs.-patriarchal
religions, spiritual
exploration, redemption and mythology Ñ all
eloquently communicated
through African, Celtic, Arabian and Latin
flourishes.
Keineg says that despite the
depth of thought, there's not exactly a
master plan to the direction
of her music, whether in style or
substance.
''I have no concrete themes
or ideas when I start on an album,'' she
said. ''I go in very open to
experimentation. This time, actually, I was
really interested in a true
collaboration. There's not enough of that
these days. People seem to
have their own agendas anymore.''
That hope for outside input
resulted in Keineg holing up in a
Bearsville, N.Y., home
studio with producers John Holbrook and
ex-Captain Beefheart acolyte
Eric Drew Feldman, now a member of
PJ Harvey's band.
The arrangement, Keineg
says, ''brought an ease to the process. It
became a social experience
instead of work, where we could spend
more time on the songs but
work less hours in a day. ... And the work
became like a lump of dough
rolled out on a kitchen table, with each
of us having a hand on the
rolling pin.''
Keineg insists that if there
is any central theme that emerges from
her work, it's more
simplistic than might be expected.
''I suppose that most all of
my songs are love songs. That doesn't
sound very interesting, but
that's essentially what they are.''
Keineg, who started busking
as early as age 16, has been intriguing
listeners with her exquisite
''love songs'' since 1992, when she cut a
single, ''Hestia,'' for Sol
Records, co-owned by former Husker Du
kingpin Bob Mould. The song,
along with ''Destiny's Darling,'' later
surfaced on the Scotti Bros.
compilation ''Straight Outta Ireland,''
which generated major-label
interest in the singer.
Her first proper release,
1994's ''O Seasons O Castles,'' was a
critics' favorite but failed
commercially. She gained some exposure
singing backup on Natalie
Merchant's ''Tigerlily'' in 1995, but only
now Ñ with ''One Hell of a
Life,'' the lead-off single from ''Jet,''
recently added in heavy
rotation to many adult album alternative
radio outlets Ñ has Keineg
achieved any significant success in the
States.
Still, her haunting tunes
aren't as approachable as, say, those of
Sarah McLachlan or Jewel, so
a huge following isn't likely. That suits
Keineg just fine.
''I don't ever think of what
I do in terms of breaking big,'' she said.
''I'm not someone with huge
economic ambitions. I'm not formulaic,
so preformed streams of
success are not really open to me.
''I'm not really following
in anyone's footsteps, so it's difficult. But
people seem willing to
follow what I do.''