On April 4th, Brighton-based Australian vocalist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Penelope Trappes will release her fifth full-length album ‘A Requiem’. The LP collects ten haunting, ambient soundscapes - incantations of dreams and nightmares, of death and grief, as well as power and autonomy. Carnal, transcendent cello drones are used to exorcise historical and generational traumas in an evocative and macabre piece of gothic experimentalism.
Seeking solitude for what she knew would be an intense and cathartic writing experience, Trappes travelled to Scotland and isolated completely. Amidst meditative and psychedelic states, she channeled demons and accessed parts of herself she’d long desired to cleanse. ‘A Requiem’ is a musical service in honour of the dead, a sanctuary Trappes built for herself to explore familial chaos and history.
The album is a raw, spiritual journey. Astonishingly vulnerable, and a compelling examination of loss - the threat of it, the meaning of it, the coming to terms with it. Across an album of breathtaking compositions, we are asked to bear witness to a sacred personal experience like no other.
“intimate and surreal—like watching yourself mourn intense tragedy from an outsider’s vantage point.” -Bandcamp
"the sound of dust motes momentarily caught in a shaft of moonlight, of spirits pushing through from another realm. Alluring yet unsettling.” -Electronic Sound
"striking work of evolution and deconstruction" -The Wire
“Summoning the great ghosts of vintage 4AD and Kranky” -Pitchfork