Helen Money, aka Alison Chesley, is a cellist who has worked with some pretty heavy hitters in the alternative/underground scenes including Jarboe, Bob Mould, Steve Albini, and Neurosis. In addition to these, she has also released music as part of the band Verbow and as a composer for film, theatre, and dance.
Will Thomas, whose work I am less familiar with, is also an active composer for adverts, TV, and films and has previously worked with Helen Money on numerous of her solo outputs, as well as having an ongoing working relationship with Roger Eno (Brian Eno‘s younger brother). He has a series of albums under the Plumbline and Dive Index monikers too, so it looks like I will need to pull my finger out and start investigating some of his work.
‘Someone Out There’ opens the album in a moody fashion and at a mere two minutes long is really an introductory piece, albeit an incredibly effective one. The first ‘proper’ track as it were ‘Thieves’ takes a slightly different approach, more industrial laden as well as being influenced by the glitchy techno of Autechre. The cello helps add a My Bloody Valentine, shoegaze ethereal element and while this theoretically sounds like a disparate and unlikely combination on paper, if it was good enough for Slowdive on their Pygmalion album it should certainly be good enough here, which it is.
‘Half Asleep’ slows down proceedings yet again with a more classical strain, the kind of thing you would witness at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester (a very fancy venue) and I wouldn’t be surprised were I to hear the duo were making an appearance there in the not too distant future. Sophistication and elegance emanates from every pore thus making the aforementioned location the ideal home for it. A beautifully composed number.
‘Boulevard In Silence’ has something of a post-Metal tribal vibe which reminded me of Neurosis side-project Tribes of Neurot (as well as Neurosis themselves) whilst ‘Abandon’ is almost cinematic and by extension Lynchian in scope. There is that omnipresent sense of unease and strangeness that associates it for me with that director. ‘Trace’ feels a little Krautrockian with a strong rhythmic pulse (think Kraftwerk’s Autobahn) with lush strings providing what is a simultaneously complementary yet disparate accompaniment.
‘She Never Suspected’ again continues the filmic vibes of ‘Abandon’ but one would suit any amount of modern dystopian Westerns (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford in particular) and ‘Half Awake’ sounds like what it is, a drowsy number that taps into Kid A/Amnesiac era Radiohead as well as Nils Frahm. Soothing lysergic goodness.
In stark contrast is ‘Tilt’ which adopts a far more threatening, ominous metallic tone, a demonstration of the duo’s skill and ability in managing to balance light and shade on Trace. ‘Glass Shattered’ seems to employ Earth/Sunn O))) style drones proving that you don’t necessarily need ear-piercing shrieks and furious riffing to be heavy, (Peter Brotzmann‘s Machine Gun is another illustration of this), finally ‘The Wheel’ serves as an outro that mirrors opener ‘Someone Out There’ bringing as it does the album full-circle. The perfect conclusion to the whole affair.
For those who approach experimental music with a degree of trepidation and even outright fear, this album is an ideal gateway to more challenging fare (next step John Zorn?). At a mere thirty-eight minutes long Trace (Thrill Jockey) is the ideal length, with tracks that never outstay their welcome. Overall, it is an entrancing, captivating piece of work that you’d be a fool to pass up on.
Buy the album here:
8 / 10
REZA MILLS