Jarboe’s influence on Swans was to temper and balance Gira’s blunt, bludgeoning brutality and explore a more elegant, graceful aspect. Her post-Swans work has been prodigious and immensely varied (36 solo albums as well as over 63 collaborative projects). What’s more, the list of collaborators she’s worked with is a veritable who’s-who of what you might broadly call ‘alternative’ music of the last 30 years, a catalogue of artists including Steven Severin, Neurosis, and JK Broadrick under his Jesu moniker.
Helen Money, meanwhile (known to family and friends as Alison Chesley) has established herself an admirable reputation as a composer and cellist and has herself accrued a remarkable list of album credits, appearing with Melvins, Anthrax, The Black Keys, Chris Connelly, School of Seven Bells, Russian Circles, Bob Mould and Broken Social Scene, amongst others.
‘Jarboe & Helen Money’ is, as one would reasonably expect, an immensely accomplished work that draws on the unique and highly individual strengths of both artists. It’s also a work of haunting and hushed intensity, with Money’s nuanced and articulate cello playing providing a magnificent foil to Jarboe’s distinctive voice. As such, it’s a collaboration in the truest sense.
‘For My Father’ begins with a swell of strings before dropping to a glacial piano-led minimialism that rolls and roils evocatively, allowing Jarboe’s delicate vocal to take the foreground. ‘My Enemy’ is stark and tense. While there are some exquisite passages of lush orchestration, there are also some astounding tempests of noise.
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The ethereal, almost choral vocal of ‘Mr Blue’ is underpinned by a nagging bass, and evokes Swans circa ‘The Great Annihilator’. Jarboe stalks stealthily through the sounds of torment as thunderous drums and a raging guitar throws jagged noise in every direction. A banshee-like wail, dragged from the depths ends the track, before a violent bassline and rapidly oscillating synth builds a nervous tension on the album’s shortest track, ‘Wired’. The brooding folk of ‘Truth’ is built around acoustic guitar and piano, and again, the simple arrangement means the richness of Jarboe’s voice is the focal point. The final track, ‘Every Confidence’ brings some hard, buzzing noise that contrasts with the softer, slowly turning tones and encapsulates the way in which this collaboration utilises contrast to powerful effect.
Both musicians bring to this work innovative approaches to composition and to sound, and use their respective instruments – cello and voice – in ways that don’t conform to convention. it’s for this reason they’ve succeeded in creating something that’s truly unique.
Jarboe and Helen Money Online
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