Inga Liljestrom – Quiet Music For Quiet People (Vitamin Records)

While Sydney-based vocalist / composer Inga Liljestrom’s previous album “Elk’ on Groovescooter showed her working with lush, filmic instrumental backdrops, this latest offering “Quiet Music For Quiet People’ comes from a completely different place altogether. With the intent being to conjure up the atmosphere of stripped-back and fragile desert music, for this album Liljestrom gathered together a group of musicians who had never played together before for a completely improvised session recorded over two nights in a small Surrey Hills studio. The liner notes include the suggestion “Some songs have cracks you are completely welcome to fall into’; apt instructions for listening to the nine expansive tracks gathered here indeed. Throughout there’s certainly an ever-present desert vibe conjured up particularly by John Carr’s use of dobro and lap steel, with the blend between the aforementioned elements and Liljestrom’s heavily-reverbed vocals at points calling to mind the similarly desert-inclined Hope Sandoval. It’s the “cracks’ in these recordings that particularly adds an intriguing edge here however, whether in the form of “accidental’ sounds captured during the improvised recording process, or in the subtle electronic textures and samples that Alon Ilsar and Bob Scott scatter amongst the live instrumentation. Equally intriguing is the inescapably European flavour that Liljestrom’s own Swiss heritage brings to proceedings, a quality that particularly rears its head amidst the sweeping strings and treated vocals of “Lost Highway’, dragging this well away from predictable Americana. An inspired collection that captures Liljestrom’s talents in perhaps their most mesmerising instrumental setting yet.