I came into work this morning debating what to listen to, and nothing seemed quite right until I started playing Rykarda Parasol’s newest album, For Blood and Wine. This is gorgeous, gothy, dark, sensual stuff, lush but never heavy-handed, sparse when it needs to be, like the chilling, “Hold Back the Night.” It’s haunting and gorgeous, dense and easy to get lost in. Well worth you getting your ears wrapped around.

Parasol lives in San Francisco, and apart from her presence on the local music scene, she also founded the Hive, a secret location art salon in Russian Hill (exact location is a secret, of course). Crawdaddy! was an early proponent of her talents; we wrote about her way back in June of 2007, but her music has continued to evolve and garner her accolades well beyond the fair city that we share.

Parasol’s rock noir style has been likened to Nick Cave, the Black Heart Procession, and she’s been considered the West Coast’s answer to Nico. Her lyrics are intimate and searching, while underneath brews a range of instrumentation, which includes piano, guitar, and weepy strings, thumping drum beats and eerie backing vocals.

Parasol self-released For Blood and Wine last fall. You can order hard copies through her website, or download digitally through Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster, and others.

“Je Suis Une Fleur”

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