Novi Split, Pink in the Sink

by dave heaton

David Jerkovich strummed a guitar and sang some memorable songs in his supporting role on recent Kind of Like Spitting releases, but his own project Novi Split is an entirely different thing, more ambitious. At least that's the case on Novi Split's idiosyncratic second LP Pink in the Sink, the rewarding work of a musician following his own vision. It's an album reflecting one person's perspective, but not narrow for it – it has a lush, yet minimalist, sound, due both to his playing a variety of instruments (drums, piano, guitar, bass and who knows what) and his not restricting his music to just one musical style. It's not just a voice and guitar, yet that same intimacy and directness is still there, start to finish. And the same folk heritage, even – it's not hard to still hear Phil Ochs and Woody Guthrie in this, while it's not all he's drawing from. He even sings Beyonce's "Crazy in Love", spotlighting the rapturous feelings of it.

There's sparkling, even jawdropping beauty throughout. I considered listing examples – the pristine strings-and-piano setup of "Voices Carrie", the funky strut of the melancholy "Leaving It", the closing ancient-wind C&W prayer for change – but really the whole album has a sleek, transcendent kind of purity to it. As he sings bittersweet songs of lost souls trying to figure life out, the music is the perfect healing complement to the struggling, the turmoil of life.

{www.hushrecords.com}