PENELOPE TRAPPES – A Requiem – review

PENELOPE TRAPPES – A Requiem – review
One Little Independent

One of the many problems in the modern world is that there is just too much stuff. I mean, seriously, who can keep up with everything? I largely do nothing and I haven’t got a scooby. How do people with actual lives manage? You know; friends, families, jobs. I’ve got none of these. And yet it turns out that this is the fifth album from Ms. Trappes.

Of course, I’m not sure I should be listening to it, at all. Ms. Trappes makes no bones about the fact that this is a record about grief. Exactly the sort of thing that I should be avoiding. But sometimes you get to a place where the pain is so overwhelming that, what could have been a burden, barely makes a flicker on the register of loss.

“A Requiem” does register. And for some people it will be exceptionally heavy listening. I, largely, found myself nodding along in agreement. “That Ms. Trappes gets it, so she does. Well said, lass”. Musically, it straddles the world of modern chamber folk, a splash of goth (assuming goth can ever be splashy) and a handful of dark ambient. Which is an excellent place to be.

Apparently, Ms. Trappe, an Australian born, Brighton based musician prepared for this record by coming to Scotland, and connecting with her Celtic ancestry in a way she never had before. As a born and bred Scotsman, I normally disapprove of this notion. But a lot of the music does sound like it belongs on an eldritch, dark, windswept, West coast peninsula. Like the one I used to live on.

It’s one of those records where it’s almost impossible to point to one song and say ‘banger’. The thirty four minutes of music exists as a whole entity and really needs to be listened to in that way. Don’t pop it on your phone, on shuffle. But I’m a contrary bugger so I was particularly drawn to ‘Red Dove’ and ‘Sleep’, where the artistry of Ms. Trappes seems to peak. If I ever witness another sunset at Cairn Holy, this is what will be playing in my head.

https://www.penelopetrappes.com/