Heliopause

Description

Berlin-based cellist and composer Anne Müller announces the release of her highly anticipated debut solo album Heliopause. Several releases from Erased Tapes feature Müller, including her renowned collaboration with Nils Frahm "7Fingers" and credits on Lubomyr Melnyk's "Fallen Trees," Ben Lukas Boysen's "Spells," and Nils Frahm's "All Melody." Classically trained at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt, Müller played for some time as a cellist in various Berlin symphonies before choosing a different path with her music and focusing on new approaches to classical instrumentation. Deeply believing in the power of artistic collaboration, Anne's talent for cello and instinctive composition has become highly sought after. After her work with Nils Frahm, a lasting partnership with Danish singer-songwriter Agnes Obel allowed her to tour alongside her. Amid all this, Müller also co-founded the progressive live project "Solo Collective" with violinist/singer Alex Stolze and pianist/conceptual artist Sebastian Reynolds, who released Solo Collective Part One in 2017. Müller wrote, recorded, arranged, and produced Heliopause. The album is named after the boundary where the solar wind ceases to have an influence. It is ultimately the edge of our solar system. "Being Anne" brilliantly opens the album and sees Müller embracing her newfound freedom with the most experimental piece on the album, placing the cello in a whole new context. Playing on an old, broken piano with a pick for the melody and scraping parts of the key mechanism to produce a rhythm, the once-lost instrument receives a new lease on life among the looping cello drones and drums. "I used the sounds of a tiny piano that my mother bought when she was a student and had no money. Later, it spent years in our little summer garden shed, where I practiced my piano lessons. Even though it's old and not in the best shape, I love the way it sounds, and I call it my little circus piano." The atmospheric swells of the sound of "Being Anne" juxtapose with the most stripped-down and exposed piece on the record, "Solo? Repeat!", influenced by Bach and Gaspar Cassado. A blend of ancient sounds and more recent structures, its repeated arpeggio evokes drama and illustrates Müller's skilled production capabilities. "Drifting Circles" serves as the album's highlight, amidst an orchestra of looping cellos and voices. Referencing the minimalism of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, it is a crescendo of harmonics allowing the cello to become damaged as it crosses the boundary from minor to major. Heliopause crosses all these physical and invisible boundaries, sending the typically classical instrument into uncharted new territory.