The unpretentious, gentle manner of Married in Berdichev's Brittany Gould gives little indication as to the intensity of her art

Comments (0) By Tom Murphy Thursday, Jul 8 2010

During one of her tours as Married in Berdichev with Nick Houde's Transistor Radio Sound, Gould met Eva Aguila of the noise project Kevin Shields while on a stop in Los Angeles, where she stayed with Josh Taylor, of Monkey Mania fame, and Mike Zorman, who drummed for Ultra Boyz. Gould and Aguila hit it off famously, and they formed a duo called Caldera Lakes. Whenever Gould is in Los Angeles, she and Aguila play together and record. To date, there are a number of Caldera Lakes releases, most on small tape labels; one was cited by Byron Coley and Thurston Moore in a March 2010 Arthur magazine article as one of their top ten favorite things — musical or otherwise.

While receiving recognition from other famous artists might go to the head of a less grounded person, Gould keeps making her art — both visual and musical — with the same grace and good sense. Her recently released Readying is her most fully realized recording.

jacob teitelbaum

The marrying kind: Britanny Gould makes beautiful music as Married in Berdichev.

Details

Married in Berdichev, Titwrench Festival, featuring Night of Joy, Hideous Men and more, Friday, July 9-Sunday, July 11, Glob, 3551 Brighton Blvd., single day $12, 3-day pass $30, titwrench.com.

More About

"All the songs," Gould notes, "are about a beautiful romance of living and meeting people and knowing people and thinking it could never get any better or get any worse." Asked about how her melancholy songs could sound so expansive and dreamy, she remarks, " Usually the songs are made when I'm hanging out in my room by myself usually really bummed out," she says. "It's all improv when I'm doing it; then it's really talking and getting stuff off my chest, like stream-of-consciousness writing, but singing — like diary singing.

"I'll listen to it later and love it or hate it or maybe like it later," Gould offers. "One of the songs I made a year ago, I hated for a long time, and then suddenly I thought, 'Maybe I like this song now.' I realized what I could do to it to make it okay."