cocteau twins, kayo dot, converge, the dillinger escape plan, kings of leon, motorpsycho, braid, mew, circa survive, the fall of troy, anywhen, sunny day real estate, joan of arc, red house painters, appleseed cast, sigur ros, marc ribot, boards of canada, piano magic, phelan/sheppard, bjork, jeff buckley, rufus wainwright, sonic youth, jesus and mary chain, codeine, chet baker, julie london, vince noir & howard moon, thomas pynchon, brian greene's elegant universe, jean giono, dan simmons, neil gaiman, robert anton wilson, hans henny jahnn, cormac mccarthy, malcolm lowry, emily dickinson, lord byron, claude debussy, gustav mahler, sacre du printemps, gabriel faure, j.m.w. turner, edvard munch, jake and dinos chapman ...
Sounds Like
"A word is dead when it is said, some say, I say it just begins to live that day."
TRACKLIST:
1. silence may whisper
2. statics
3. what if i say
4. remnant
5. ember
6. elicit
7. tropes
8. violate a star
exclusively available through:
www.paradigms-recordings.comhere's what AQUARIUS RECORDS (San Francisco) has to say about the album:
" (...) for now, we're happy to just drift through gorgeous hazy soundscapes with this latest disc from a group called Tropes, the work of German vocalist and soundscaper Susan Bauszat.
The sounds here are delicate and crystalline, shimmery, gauzy and utterly dreamy, but not without some ominous stirrings, the music is all soft muted synths and strings, guitar, flute, violin, all washed out and blurred into reverb drenched streaks, the perfect backdrop for Bauszat's layered vocals, tangled harmonies, dense and complex, but ethereal and angelic. Think Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Islaja, 4AD record and even more modern cd-r stuff like Grouper and Inca Ore. Dark and mysterious, lush expanses of billowing glistening sound, underpinned by shortwave buzz, insectoid skitter, bits of subtle glitch, swooping backwards melodies and all manner of soft focus sonic texture, but at it's heart the sound of Tropes is a simple stirring folk, vocals lustrous and emotive, drifting dreamlike through clouds of shimmer, abstract tangles of acoustic guitar wound gently around minimal electronic rhythms, soft washed out whirs and haunting cinematic strings. So lovely."
TROPES Press Release
The nom-du-disc of Düsseldorfs Susan Bauszat, Tropes is an outlet for music of poignant, weightless delicacy and a most intimate songwriting vision. Also one half of elegant folk rock duo Early Autumn Break, Bauszats Tropes is a literal solo project in which she alone fashions her introspective universe with brushed guitar, ephemeral pianos and other keyboards; punctuating numinous ambient drifts with shards of xylophone, eerily plucked autoharps and occasional waves of orchestral strings. Hovering above all of this is Bauszats voice - a thing of glacial purity, often multi-tracked into cumulus clouds of, by turns, gorgeous and unsettling harmony.
Influenced by such diverse forebears as differently jazzy chanteuses London and Billie Holiday, along with impressionistic classical composers like Debussy and
Fauré, Bauszats eidolon-like muse ushers the listener into some dark, meditative places. With that Alpine updraft of a voice she summons a cavernous, yet oddly enclosed, almost Gothic (in the true, architectural sense) world of reverie and catharsis - of shadowy elegance and fairytale intrigue. As deeply personal as it is, this is also music of unquestionable, mesmeric beauty its monolithically reverberant, yet wraithlike intoxications overcome you like heady incense.
On the self-titled debut EP, Tropes proffer eight, often brief, but always bewitching, midnight strolls through the swirling mist of Bauszats imagination. Combining her own, deeply personal lyrics with extracts of poetry by Emily Dickinson, this is an intensely shaded exploration into the feminine psyche a place of subtle anguish as much as it is one of beauty and resilience.
There are many spine-tingling moments among Tropes eight essays, but among the highlights its definitely worth noting opener Silence May Whispers instantly hypnotic, eggshell fragile ambience, Statics curiously seasick guitars and exquisite vocal melody and the strange beauty of Embers xylophone caressed intrigues. Meanwhile, the way What If I Say allows a jazzy undertow (with scintillatingly acrobatic vocal to match) to evolve from its insect like flickers and burbling keyboard intro, brings to mind some impossibly post-modern torch cabaret bar, peopled by phantom hipsters. Imagine prime Jane Siberry in space and youre close.
Other Tropes touchstones might include Dead Can Dance, The Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil and even Piano Magic at their most dreamlike. Add to those a touch of Juliet Greco and a de-demonized Diamanda Galas, and you begin to understand the sometimes stark, sometimes shimmering territory in which Bauszat plies her trade.
Precedents and signposts notwithstanding, Tropes offer something uniquely engaging - an appeal thats difficult to quantify as simply lovely tunes and a seductively voiced singer. Theres more to it than that - something in the way Bauzats vocal harmonies curl around each other like breeze blown ribbons, the way a string line suddenly erupts from a passage of near silence Its something you dont hear every day music of subtle, soul baring magic. After one listen you feel like youve been privy to an intimate and sensual assignation with Susan Bauszat, a feeling that lingers long after the music has stopped.
What possesses me? she asks on the lovely, semi-orchestral Elicit, and even as you cant answer, you understand exactly why she needs to ask.
(David Sheppard)
