Anna Coogan & Daniele Fiaschi 'The Nowhere, Rome Sessions' - Self-Release

Two musicians, introduced by another player, have no common language, but learned to work together by instinct, intuition and intelligence. The two are singer-songwriter Anna Coogan, who has two previous albums under her own name, and musician Danilele Fiaschi who has played rock with a number of top Italian bands.

Here the two perfectly complement each other with Fiaschi's guitar being both ambient and assertive, providing a special depth behind Coogan clear and incisive vocal and rhythm guitar. The songs are Coogan’s,  with a couple of co-writes and good choices of covers including Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald which captures much of the song's inherent drama. Phil Ochs strong song The Crucifixion is taken from a live performance at a festival in Holland,  whereas the other songs were recorded at Nowhere Studio in Rome over two days more or less straight to tape.

Coogan's own songs include Red Shoes, Black Dress (an immediate standout ) to Back To The World where her voice shines over the subtle but thoroughly effective electric guitar tones. Like Sergio Webb with David Olney, this combination of singer/songwriter and electric guitar is so effective you don't miss additional instrumentation. One song How Will You Find Me? strips things back to just voices and guitar and shows that even in this basic form Coogan is a compelling performer.  There is no doubi though that the additional layers of steel-like guitar that Fiaschi plays add to the overall mood of the recordings and the fact is that this partnership works on many levels.