Reviews

Artist: Petra Jean Phillipson
Album: Notes On:Death
Label: Montpatry
Tracks: 15 2CDs
Website: http://www.petrajean.com

"October 2008 - On the wall in the kitchen of Montpatry is a calendar. Not of usual sorts. A moon calendar. This is how I have been living, by the moons. Counting the days, weeks, months, planning my recordings around the electricity of the full moon. The sky is so wide out here & when the Moon is out all that lives in the garden edges towards it. No sleep is how ….."

Any CD with that text on the back cover and with that title is not going to be just any old run of the mill release. This is a very personal, highly crafted, complex album. A double album the first 'Noir' is, unsurprisingly, the darker of the two (the second being 'Blanc". The opening track 'Underworld Tubephany' is nearly 13 minutes long featuring, almost exclusively, the tuba and is almost impenetrable. The second track 'City Of Lost Angels' is a more or less straight ahead rock track (albeit one with operatic vocals) and this contrast in styles, in tone, in emotion continues throughout; it is an album that never allows the listener to settle.

Ultimately 'Notes On: Death' is a hard but rewarding listen. It shows what can be achieved by one person, a person with single minded vision and dedication a person who sees music as art not a commodity and a way of expressing emotion. It is a stunning release.

John 'The Jacket' Hawes

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