Close-ups
Works by Hildegard, Pinel, Strozzi, Errollyn Wallen and Héloïse Werner
Héloïse Werner (cello, soprano), Max Baillie (violin, viola, hardanger fiddle) et al
Delphian DCD34312 61:35 mins
As a member of the judging panel for this title’s esteemed annual awards, I once had to send my miniature dachshund to the dog sitter’s for a day while I listened to the contemporary vocal music candidates, a triggering prospect for canine ears. My little dog is now deaf, otherwise she would have barked along to close-ups, the title track to Héloïse Werner’s luminous new album, a piece for soprano and strings that requires the type of oral gymnastics that regularly punctuate the composer-singer’s own music. The centrepiece of an eclectic mixtape, close-ups is an exploration of the human voice, not simply extended techniques (although there are plenty of those: grunts, shrieks and hums are integrated into traditional singing) but shifts between language and tone, those words that are recognisable, those that are not and the spaces in between. The use of spoken word is particularly effective in Les Leçons du mardi, a narrative patchwork about women suffering from ‘hysteria’ forced to act out their symptoms before a Parisian public.
Performing her own work – there is surely no better interpreter – alongside a killer ensemble comprising (in different combinations) violin, viola, cello, double bass and hardanger fiddle (a Norwegian violin with eight strings to the usual four), Werner and her collaborators are co-composers for an interlude that reappears in three guises throughout the album. Scratchy spectralism develops into a guttural outpouring; varied, unidentifiable voices create an unsettled soundscape. This comes to a head in Unspecified Intentions, Werner’s gurgling, haunting, wordless adventure. Songs by Barbara Strozzi, Errollyn Wallen, Julie Pinel and Hildegard of Bingen – newly arranged for this collection of first recordings – provide compelling context. Claire Jackson