How do they find me? The estranged, the deranged, the obscure and the just plain strange seem to find me no matter where I am. There it was, all unassuming but nicely wrapped amongst a pile of nondescript jiffy bags. A CD for sure, but it had that mystical presence thing going on and the packaging was clearly well above bargain basement level containing not one but two CDs. The title though – “Notes on: Death” – suggested that there would be few opportunities for flippancy in my words. Petra Jean Phillipson probably had connections with the forces of darkness.
Anyway, like I said, there were two CDs with one called Noir and one called Blanc. Let’s switch on the moonlight and do Noir first. “Underworld Tubeophany” pretty much describes itself in its title and is no walk in the sunshine. Similarly lodged in the shadows were the apocalyptic "City Of Lost Angels" and the got-lost-on-the-way-to-a-Spaghetti-western-soundtrack "My Love Resides in the Garden". In addition, there's even a warped murder ballad called "Kill You Drink You" that could easily have been pulled from the archives of British folk music and the wildly theatrical "3 Men 3 Mother's Dead".
On to the disc entitled Blanc. Those mystical undertones are, if anything, more prevalent. Ms Phillipson's voice is a distinctive one that seems designed for the expression of matters ethereal. "Victorian Worship Song" just wouldn't sound right without a voice that eccentric, for example, and she can turn up the emotions impressively when she need to as in "Sissy's Miracle".
I've used to word eccentric and that does seem the most appropriate description to apply to the music on this album. It could only be the work of a true English eccentric. Complex and ambitious in its design and execution, " Notes on: Death" was never going to be an easy listen (and it took me a fair amount of time to actually decide that I liked it). However, the mere fact that I had to return to it as often as I did speaks volumes about how much there is to be discovered and pondered upon between the notes.
The album is available from the Montpatry Press website.