Crepusculo by Petracovich

Crepusuclo (cray-poo-skoo-low)means twilight in Spanish. It’s the time between night and day when all turns to glow and birds fly around the bell towers. It is the beginning and the end. It is full of the small beauties of watching the world and the spirit of a little boy, and life as it keeps going through heart ache and great love.

This third album of Petracovich was recorded in Portland with John Askew, Jessica pregnant with her first child. Wooden floors and windows, an old piano full of songs of great songwriters past, banjos, bells, drums and harmonium, we worked to record these songs honestly, simply, with bare heart and open voice. A lot of hummus was eaten, and tortillas and kefir, that baby was a-growin.

Max Diez of Audio Outsend came up to play the drums, and Tad Wagner, producer of the past two Petracovich albums, added guitars from Santa Barbara, with his usual great ideas and energetic creativity. The process was wonderfully open as we melded tracks from Jessica’s home studio, and Secret Society (Portland) into the mix. Cory Gray played shiny horns, playful and dark at different times.

We decided to wait to release the album till after the birth. When beautiful Otto made his entrance into the world, it was clear that something was wrong. An accident with the cord in the womb caused injuries that allowed him only 8 days on the earth. Days of silent tears, sweet holding, and so much singing and tenderness and love, of comforting and guiding his passage.

Otto’s birth and passing changed everything about the album. Many songs seemed to be written for this event, even though most were written before his conception. “You are This Perfect” is a love song to a baby who was not yet in existence, yet it seemed to be a gift that floated down, almost in one piece, to a mama-to-be for his coming. We sang it to him over and over when we has here.

This album is his, his spirit is woven through it, and we are grateful for the recording of this part of his life. Grateful for music to get us through.

Based out of San Francisco, Petracovich is Jessica Peters with an old-world version of her family name. Her great-grandfather came to the US from Russia at the turn of the century, and one of the only things Peters knows of Abraham Petracovich is that he loved to listen to the New York Opera from the radio in the living room. Out of respect for the music, he would always wear his best suit.

Many years later, his 9 year old great-granddaughter would be at the piano, practicing Chopin and Debussy, which evolved into writing unrequited-love songs in highschool, and spending her 20’s in long, blissful hours on a living-room floor, creating sounds and beats, twisting knobs, tinkering and writing.

Dreamy folk pop that is lyrical, poetic and full. Jessica of Petracovich plays the piano, with some banjo and bells and lots of clicky sounds and shakery things. She hikes hills, raises kids and loves to sing in bars. Petracovich has toured nationally and performed on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic.

petracovich.com