Cursillistas "Wasp Stings the Last Bitter Flavor" CD $13
"Wasp Stings the Last Bitter Flavor" marks the first widely available release from this Portland, Maine troubadour. The brains behind the project is Matt Lajoie and he is perhaps best known for his enchanted album on Time-Lag Records. His folk-inspired psychedelia reaches new heights on "Wasp Stings" as he puts together an album of lost songs, found hiding in a dank and dusty cellar. Lajoie's approach here is different. It's as if he's taken the negative space of his previous works and hashed them out and spruced them up until they've become epic, flowing songs whitewashed with a basketfull of analog hiss. The whole thing flows together like magic poured straight from the sky. It's haunting, beautiful music.

Cursillistas' music is often densely populated with a variety of instrumentation and textures. Lajoie is a master at molding sounds from a variety of sources into a cohesive, organic whole. This music, as with past efforts, sounds like an intimate secret whispered in the listener's ear. You feel as though you're being led into a world where very few lucky souls find their way. Lajoie's distinctive voice is the true weapon here, weaving hypnotic melodies over rivers of delicately strummed acoustic guitars. "Wasp Stings the Last Bitter Flavor" is his message in a bottle. It's a love letter to everyone and no one, and there's a lot to love here, that is for damn sure.

Lajoie is joined by the inimitable Nemo Bidstrup (Time-lag Records figurehead and the brains behind Drona Parva) and sometime-MV & EE collaborator, Sparrow Wildchild.

Housed in sturdy, white-on-black gatefold jackets.

tracklist:
1. drone (groan)
2. caves carved in golden light
3. larks on a string
4. tree stain
5. moccasin tramp (audio sample)
6. happened in the sun/moccasin stamp
7. show them love

Praise for Cursillistas' previous works:

"This last track speaks best to the depth and size that this one-man band is able to impart: a loose choir of voices submerged in round layers of horns and percussion recalling Terry Riley’s egalitarian minimalisms, specifically the devastating live recording of his ‘Olson III’. The giddy swathes of guitar which form the wispy pink cloud of the final track are in fact winding backwards (though the effect is hardly regressive); the choir and xylophone return, now in warm unison, jiving in harmony, eschewing antics for a proper farewell." - Animal Psi

"Cursillistas is playful in its vocal delivery and lyrical content, but never thoughtless. Each of the many instruments used is carefully arranged and Cursillistas’s ear for intricacy makes the album a dreamy evocation." ­- Northeast Performer