This double CD from PETRA JEAN PHILLIPSON has been five years in the making, and follows ‘Notes on Love’. The CD was inspired by Petra’s obsession with death, which began early when at the age of five she discovered her uncle, deceased in a chair, which began her questioning the aspects of life and death. This does not make for easy listening pleasure, but in spite of that, these CDs are surprisingly rewarding.
The CDs are divided into two opposite albums, a black and a white. The ‘Noir’ album is, to my mind the better of the two. Starting with an instrumental, ‘Underworld Tubeophany’, this gets the first album off to a slightly disturbing start. Running at just under thirteen minutes, this is a slow builder that rises and falls. In the background you can hear what sounds like breathing. An unsettling track, doomy and atmospheric, it leaves the listener with thoughts of very vaguely remembered bad dreams from childhood.
‘City of Lost Angels’ which follows is more conventional, being a hard rock guitar thrash, with Petra’s excellent vocals which sound part Siouxsie, part Karmen Guy (Mad Juana). The subject matter is again disconcerting: - “In the city, coming to find me. I can hear them coming, wanting to blind me."
‘Ice in June’ changes the mood yet again, consisting of a moody bassline with funereal strings; the track is completely stripped down, which renders it more effective. A desperate love song, Petra implores: - “My love for you has never changed. Won’t you come home to me?” and: - “I never knew a heart could snap.” Uplifting, this clearly isn’t, however it is a rewarding listen.
‘My Love Resides in the Garden’ starts off with the sound of birdsong and other garden noises, a guitar based track that rises and falls, speeds up and then slows down. Once again, the lyrics are evocative and thought provoking: - “Oh my love, my precious one. Although we all live, we all die every day/ Don’t live too much without me in your arms, won’t you wait, won’t you wait for me.”
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‘3 Men 3 Mothers dead’ has an almost Balkan Gypsy feel to it, and is certainly one of the most (musically) uplifting tracks on the ‘Noir’ album.
The other album in this set, the ‘Blanc’ album again start with an instrumental track, ‘Imaginary Gentle Place’ a harp based track which floats pleasantly until you hear the muted undertones of someone gasping and crying in the background.
‘Victorian Worship Song’ is a slow strum which has the wonderful line “Can you see the sand trickle through the glass; we can never watch time pass.”
‘Dark Nights of the Soul’ once again revisits childhood nightmares and fears: - “When I was a little girl, I kneeled beside my bed and prayed/ That the day would pass gently and keep dark demons far away.” The vocals here are slightly breathy, which brought to mind some of Kate Bush’s better work.
This album closes with the magnificently titled ‘Ask the Gods to pull down the Sky’, with Petra intoning “I no longer long to see the day.”
Overall, this two CD set is pretentious very much in the same way that Bauhaus ‘In The Flat Field’ was. However, this is not a criticism: with ‘Notes on Death’ Petra has delivered some tracks of extraordinary beauty and ones that will remain with the listener. A Gothic masterpiece for the 21st Century anyone?
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