ALISON COTTON
Engelchen (Rocket)
A feature of British independent music since the late 90s, Alison Cotton’s solo recordings have been a revelation of recent years: 2020’s Only Darkness Now, a web of folk and drone music equal parts gothic and worshipful, ought to be cemented as a classic album decades hence. Engelchen is her second LP for the Rocket label, and her first to hinge on an overarching concept: its song titles and lyrics relate to the story of sisters Ida and Louise Cook, whose passion for German opera in the 1930s served as cover for their efforts to give persecuted Jewish citizens a safe passage out of the country.
It’s presumably no accident that the album’s title track, with only solemn viola accompanying lyrics in which the Cook sisters remind one another to “think how many we saved,” is Cotton’s clearest indication of operatic inclinations to date. Certainly her voice remains one of the most stunning in modern folk and/or experimental music, although she sometimes eschews actual lyrics in favour of nonverbal ululations. We Were Smuggling People’s Lives, on which this habit can be heard, is a multi-parted hydra roughly as long as the rest of Engelchen combined – about 20 minutes. Important to remember, however, that smaller and less assuming parts can be of great significance.
words NOEL GARDNER