#outer spaces

These songs have a fresh-scrubbed authenticity, centered on Satalino’s raspy soprano and forthright language, though they often swell, mid-cut, into multi-voiced, descanting fullness. “Time,” for instance, begin in simplicity, its jangling guitar paced by kick drum, a pedal steel curving up through the verse. Satalino’s singing is straightforward, rich but unornamented, until it blossoms in dizzying harmonies and counterpoints, suddenly overwhelming.

Satalino’s tunes range in tone from jangling folk pop to near country, think Waxahatchee but not as southern. She sings about Volvos station wagons, not pick-up trucks. A few, like “Daylight Savings Time,” feature wavery keyboard or maybe recorder melodies that shade them subtly into 1960s folk territory. Yet though the accompaniment can be flowery, the words are precise and workmanlike. Consider this, from “Daylight Savings Time”— “Today I woke up feeling rested/with an hour to spare/free time in my pocket/time that was not there yesterday/it’s on the front page/it’s the good news we never gave/one solitary hour feels like money to be spent.”

Though Little Green is a solo album, Satalino is by no means alone. Her partner in Outer Spaces, Chester Gwazda, is a big presence, playing bass and keyboards on most tracks, and guitar and drums on a couple.  Angie Boylan, who has toured with Sleater-Kinney and Maria Paternoster, picks up the rest of the drumming duties, while Dan Kassel adds cello. Nicholas Metz is especially effective on pedal steel, nudging cuts like “Outlaw” into rich twanging country. The arrangements never overwhelm. Satalino’s voice and stories remain the focus. But they do expand and enliven her songs, and you can hear a certain joy in the musicians’ ability to play together again after a period of separation.

Despite the troubles that surround it, this isn’t a sad album at all. It finds ways to celebrate the good parts of the last few years, as in “The Great Liberator.” Sings Satalino, “Walked down to the farm to watch the eagles catch the sun, it doesn’t seem like much but it’s a new brand of fun.”  Like Little Green. 

She's the newest addition to my worldbuilding and it's from the Outer Spaces. Not outer space, the Outer Spaces. Very different places (although some Far Spaces do resemble outer space)

The Outer Spaces are pretty much the backrooms, although there are some key differences. Most things in the Outer Spaces aren't hostile (like Stranger), and the environments are mostly survivable. You can't really get to the Outer Spaces from this universe, although things from the Outer Spaces can leak in through weak points.

That's how Stranger got here. It kind of just showed up one day and didn't leave. She's Jess-Ava's friend and has made a room in her cupboard. It has an odd habit of manipulating the space around her, although this upset Jess-Ava and she stopped doing it in Jess-Ava's room fairly soon after meeting her. It's too tall for most spaces indoors and has a perpetually sore neck as a result.

It doesn't speak, although she probably understands Anglish. It's unclear if she eats, but you can put a sandwich in front of it and leave the room for a while and come back to a guilty-looking Stranger and a missing sandwich.

Maintaining eye contact with her isn't a good idea

Bigger version of the high opacity sunspots lol