Quiet The Room

Description

Quiet the Room, the enthralling debut album from Skullcrusher, aka Helen Ballentine, is the sound of a window opening, a barrier lifting. The outside world seeps in, and the inside world recedes. The result is a breathtaking, moving work that reflects the journeys we make within ourselves, journeys that allow us to then present ourselves to the world. What she wanted to capture in Quiet the Room was not the innocence of childhood, as it is so often depicted, but its intense complexity. Past and present merge in this dreamlike space, mingled with elements of fantasy, magic, and mystery. To capture the blend of electronic, ambient, folk, and rock, Helen and her partner and collaborator Noah Weinman enlisted producer Andrew Sarlo and recorded at Chicken Shack studio in upstate New York, near where she grew up. These songs are full of moments of anxiety that transform into moments of peace, as on the first single "Whatever Fits Together." On "It's Like a Secret," Helen expresses her difficulty in connecting with others and letting them into her life, acknowledging that no one can ever fully know our inner worlds. And yet, on the closing track, "You are my House," she finds a way to reach out. As the album cover illustrates, these songs are like dollhouses that we observe with our giant eyes, scrutinizing this stratified and luminous world that Skullcrusher has created. Like a child building a shelter in a patch of sharp brambles, she reminds us that beauty and terror can exist in the same place. The complexities of childhood are so often ignored, but through these intimate yet generous songs, she gives new weight to our earliest memories by expanding the framework for us.