Penelope Trappes – A Requiem

Description

Brighton-based Australian vocalist, producer and multi-instrumentalistPenelope Trappes releases her new full-length album, A Requiem.A Requiem collects ten haunting, ambient soundscapes -incantations of dreams and nightmares, of death and grief, as well aspower and autonomy. Carnal, transcendent cello drones are used toexorcise historical and generational traumas in an evocative andmacabre piece of gothic experimentalism.

Trappes has centered herself in the narrative while solidifying asound that was already spellbinding to begin with – Pitchfork

A striking work of evolution and deconstruction… meticulous withfine detail, and trusting of the supernatural forces that elevate it. – The Wire

Seeking solitude for what she knew would be an intense and catharticwriting experience, Trappes travelled to Scotland and isolatedcompletely. Amidst meditative and psychedelic states, shechannelled demons and accessed parts of herself shed long desiredto cleanse. During candle-lit recording sessions she found herselfdrawn to the cello, an instrument she has no formal training in, sheexplains, I always felt an affinity toward the cello, I embraced it, heldit, and became one with it as a way to accompany my voice. Thenerve-like strings of the cello became external chords of my vocalfolds… I scratched on them, leaned into them, and conjured all of thetextures I could muster.

A Requiem is a raw, spiritual journey. Astonishingly vulnerable, and a compelling examination of loss – the threat of it, the meaning of it,the coming to terms with it. Across an album of breathtakingcompositions, we are asked to bear witness to a sacred personalexperience like no other.

Despite formal vocal training in opera and jazz when she wasyounger, it wasnt until after her daughter was born that Penelopebegan writing her own music. She says coming into music later hasbeen eye opening, and she laments the fact that women past 30 aretoo often discarded by the music industry; Creativity doesnt go away
when you get older, it flourishes, changes, grows like all of life, shesays, it amazes me that this is still something for society to wrap theirheads around.

Available to independent retailers on Corona Red vinyl.

Tracklist

Bandorai
Platinum
Second Spring
Sleep
Anchor Us To Seabed Floor
Red Dove
Caro
A Requiem
Torc
Thou Art Mortal