David Helpling: IN
Spotted Peccary Music

In every artist's career, there are achievements that tower over others, works that register as culminations of all that's come before and distill into a single statement everything about the artist's output that makes it deserving of attention. Though his career is hardly at its end, David Helpling's IN carries with it the feel of a peak when it so definitively presents his artistry at the highest level. Decades ago, a double-album release would be seen as an artist's crowning expression—see Physical Graffiti, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, The River, Sign o' the Times, etc.; today, the digital format notwithstanding, a double-CD release symbolizes the same idea. It will certainly be a challenge for the California-based Helpling to surpass the level of refinement he's achieved on this latest collection of ambient artistry.

Clocking in at nearly ninety minutes, IN was composed over a ten-year period and, in being so brilliantly realized, sounds like it. While Helpling is primarily responsible for the album's compositions and sounds, he didn't create it alone. Co-producer Howard Givens helped bring it to fruition, and the multi-instrumentalist also included contributions from a handful of other artists, namely electric cellist Matthew Schoening, Esraj player Benjy Wertheimer, singers Nidhi Bhatmuley and Miriam Stockley, and Matthew Stewart on drums and modular synthesizers.

In contrast to Helpling's guitar-centric releases A Sea Without Memory and RUNE, IN casts a wider net, sonically speaking. Yes, guitar (electric and ebow) remains central to the ambient design, but he also uses percussion, analog and digital synthesizers, samplers, and drum programming to flesh out the sound field. Conceptually speaking, the project has to do with exploring micro-space and uncovering the wonders lurking therein. Textures, colours, and shapes become all the more striking when viewed at a magnified scale, and it's this vivid and vibrant world that Helpling's tried to render into thirteen musical productions.

At the journey's beginning, the epic sweep of “Waves Dream of Breaking” locates us within a pulsating landscape of swoon-inducing atmospheres, melodic figures, and reverberant synth washes; even at this introductory stage, his superior command of sound painting is startlingly clear. Slightly more serene is “Still As Stone,” the track distinguished by the prominence of electric guitar and a mood of almost child-like wonder. Even a slow-burner such as “Bending Towards the Night” arrests, this one for sprinkling electric grand piano timbres and tabla-like hand drums across its lulling foundation.

Helpling's guests make a huge difference and do much to take IN to an even higher plane. “This Burning Sky” is memorable for a soaring wordless vocal by Bhatmuley that elevates the supplicating epic. While “The Bliss You've Always Carried” is highlighted by the vocal-like cry Wertheimer's Esraj, a bowed instrument from India, adds to the lovely meditation, the dreamlike “Slipping” and exultant closer “I Too Am Coming Home” are even more transporting for featuring the intoxicating voice of Miriam Stockley. Not surprisingly, the epic reach of “You Already Are” is extended by the dynamism of Schoening's electric cello.

May 2022