There is no stronger bond between people than the bond between family members. For Romy and Sari Lightman, two-thirds of Halifax folk trio Ghost Bees, the connection runs strong, not only through their veins, but their imaginations, forming a powerful creative link that makes most musical partnerships seem casual by comparison.
It makes sense, then, that the inspiration for their debut album, Tasseomancy, is their great-great-grandmother, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who specialized in the psychic art of tea leaf reading, a.k.a. tasseomancy. The mystic quality of feeling inexplicably connected to a family member three generations older informs the tone of the album, which flutters between ghostly imagery of ages past and a wide-eyed curiousity at their meaning.
“I think ancestry has an important role on this album and [is] a theme that keeps reoccurring, so there’s definitely an oldness to it,” Romy explains over the phone. “It was more about inspiration than formalizing a particular style. For us, we’re definitely more inspired by the ideas of things, rather than the actual technique of it; sort of building around an idea.”
This process of working around certain themes or impressions gives Tasseomancy its depth. Sometimes slowing down to take a closer look at one frozen moment or feeling, only to continue swiftly on to the next image, the whole affair leaves the listener with only a foggy and mysterious impression of the sisters’ labyrinthine thought process.
That Sari wrote six of the seven songs on the album is almost beside the point, considering the undeniable energy that vibrates between the sisters when they play. Their perfectly matched voices tumble over a spare arrangement of poignantly plucked guitar and mandolin, backed beautifully by ex-Calgary resident Amber Phelps-Bonderoff’s viola. Romy says that the instrumentation on Tasseomancy was kept minimal because of their shared goal of giving listeners a more organic impression of the group.
“I think we went through different incarnations of having different people playing, and Andy [March, producer] was composing different parts,” she says. “But in the end, the songs were composed just for Sari and I, and maybe the accompaniment of strings. We decided that it felt right, for it being our first album, to have it as bare and honest as possible.”
Though the interconnectivity of the Lightmans and their familial inspiration is undoubtedly what gives their debut its edge, Ghost Bees have more to offer than just a family tree. The sophistication of both their storytelling and the melodies that support it is enough reason to keep a close eye on these sisters.