3 out of 5

Label: Thrill Jockey

Produced by: Will Thomas & Alison Chesley

A cinematic collection of thoughts.

Helen Money / Alison Chesley’s cello has leant itself to a stunning amount of compositions, and, from what I’ve sampled, always notably so: both her solo works and collaborations are as emotive as they are varied, leaning towards darker, moodier sounds – as this album does – but running the gamut of styles within that framework, from more traditional orchestration to heavy rock to electronic. Composer Will Thomas has been working with Chesley for awhile, and has a prodigious back catalogue of his own, including a fair number of movie / TV score work.

The full collaboration here is, indeed, a fitting cross-section: mostly grounded by Chesley’s deep, sonorous cello, often layered and building, but then scissored down to focused moments – akin to soundtrack cues – and wrapped in Thomas’ electronic touches. Occasionally, digital leads the way – such as on the glitchy Thieves; the propulsive Tilt – but the majority of songs here build the strings to a crescendo, and are goosed along by little flourishes. The nature of cinematic cues, though, is that they tend not to build to an over-arching storyline; they are supplemental to sights on a screen. Chesley cops to this concept in the promotional copy, featured on the bandcamp page – she’s searching for a feeling or sound, not a narrative. As such, with a couple of two-song exceptions, where one track leads into the other effectively, most of Trace comes across as glimpses of something, despite 4 or 5 minute runtimes. We start over on whatever story we want to imagine with each song.

That’s admittedly a bit misleading: if you experience these songs individually, they do stand on their own. But the sequencing is a bit fragmented, and makes the album seem like a compilation, making it somewhat less likely to appreciate all of the nuance in a single sitting. Take it slow; give it time – Trace has emotional weight, but there’s some pun here about the title of the album: you keep hunting for a trail to follow, because the sensations are, on their own, very satisfying, but it’s a new trail as soon as the next song starts.