Heligoland: This Quiet Fire
Editions Furioso
In addition to being the first full-length studio album in more than a decade from Heligoland, This Quiet Fire is also the first release by the Australian dreampop outfit helmed solely by founding members Karen Vogt (vocals, guitars, keyboards) and Steve Wheeler (bass, guitars, keyboards). Others did, however, participate in the forty-four-minute album's creation, namely Dave Olliffe (drones, keyboards), Jolanda Moletta (piano on the riveting ballad “Trinity”), and, most significantly, Robin Guthrie, who's not only credited with drums, bass, and keyboards but producing, mixing, and mastering. Those dazzled by his sublime Cocteau Twins material can be so all over again, albeit with Vogt in place of Liz Fraser. The singing and the songwriting might be Heligoland's, but there's no discounting Guthrie's critical contribution to the project (available in vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital formats).
Heligoland hasn't been dormant for the last ten years, by the way, as a number of EPs did appear during the 2010s. But in being a full-length, This Quiet Fire carries with it the weight of a full album statement. The material, written and recorded at a studio in western France and the group's home studio in the Paris suburbs, is assured and with Vogt's vocalizing at its centre has never sounded more polished. Her voice is an instrument of remarkable expressive power and range, and it's used to maximum advantage on This Quiet Fire when her smooth, tremulous lead's often buoyed by her multi-layered backing.
In a typical track, her vocal soars gracefully over a vaporous base of chiming guitars, keyboards, and programmed drums, the texturally resplendent result reminiscent of shoegaze on production grounds. Yet whereas a band operating in that genre might opt for high-volume thunder, Heligoland often embraces a dreamier ballad style on this collection. Ten songs appear, each one impeccably crafted and distinguished by swoon-inducing melodies, luscious sonic detail, and Vogt's pitch-perfect execution. Though stirring tracks such as “Shadows,” “Trinity,” and “Throw Me to the Stars” connect immediately, they're hardly alone in doing so. The ache with which she delivers her lines in the celestial meditation “Always” brings a humanizing dimension to the music's ethereal perfection, but much the same could be said of any other song too, regardless of differences in stylistic character. For dreampop fans, it wouldn't be overstating it to call This Quiet Fire indispensable.March 2021