And Your Song Is Like a Circle＜Blue Lagoon Marble Vinyl＞

ニューヨーク出身のオルタナ・フォーク・アーティスト、Skullcrusherの3年ぶりとなる2作目のスタジオ・アルバム。彼女の持ち味である儚さを漂わせるアンビエント・サウンドスケープを感じることができる良作。小難しい説明になっていますが、曲を聴けば腑に落ちるますので是非音源をチェックしてみてください!

3年ぶりとなる2作目のスタジオ・アルバム。数年にわたって断片的にレコーディングされた本作は、経験を捉えるのではなく、捉えることのできない経験の痕跡を示す内容になっており、創作活動の蒸発性、つまりアイデアが浮かんでは消えかすかな痕跡だけを残す様子、あるいは声が時間の脆い箇所を撮り過ぎて行く様子に深く焦点を当てている。
■仕様:盤はブルー・ラグーン・マーブル・ヴァイナル、印刷された内袋、LPのみに封入されるフォト・ブック

With her full-length Skullcrusher debut, Quiet the Room, Helen Ballentine established a floaty, almost ambient sound, one where songs were swathed in gossamer layers of synths, guitars, strings, field recordings, and unidentifiable electronic whispers alongside wispy, ruminative vocals and introspective lyrics. If anything, she takes this sense of untethered atmosphere even further on And Your Song Is Like a Circle. She began working on the album after moving across the country from Los Angeles to upstate New York, a move that was followed by long periods of isolation. She assembled it somewhat piecemeal, capturing ideas over a period of three years and recording them at home, at friends studios, and with Aaron Paul O’Brien (Los Angeles) and Isaac Eiger (New York). During this process, she played with new ways of recording her voice, including singing with contact microphones attached to her throat, a peek backstage that hints at the otherworldliness to come. And Your Song Is Like a Circle begins with the spiritually a cappella "March," wherein searching lyrics like "What do I live for? Who do I live for?" are accompanied by spare piano chords, recordings of waves crashing on the shore, and passing washes of droning strings, sampled moans and howls, and shimmery electronics. With listeners effectively transported, Ballentine employs rare drums on the trip-hop-adjacent "Dragon." Later on, a song like "Maelstrom" lets loose with a thundering bass drum and more-distant syncopated snare. For the most part, though, tracks levitate above ground along webs of acoustic guitar, piano, layered vocals, and atmospheric shimmer to the point where its sometimes difficult to distinguish one song from another. (The giddy "Exhale" may be the best exception, serving as something akin to a radio single without breaking from the albums sonic universe.) For this reason, And Your Song Is Like a Circle is a true album, as opposed to a collection of songs, ending on tracks called "Vessel" ("I wanna live for someone/Wanna carry their life/But I need to carry mine") and "The Emptying," the latter of which may be said to land more than end. ~ Marcy Donelson

NYを拠点に活動するシンガー・ソングライターの2作目はダーティ・ヒットからのリリース。みずからの声を重ねて編み上げるホーリーな音空間はアンビエント・フォークの系譜だが、ストレンジ・レンジャーのアイザック・アイガーを制作に招いたプロダクションはエモに接近する瞬間も多い。フラジャイルな佇まいのなかに破格のスケール感を秘めた逸材だ。
bounce (C)田中亮太