With Enveleau, his latest solo release, Robertson does the same with the various genres he chooses to explore. Robertson has been a collaborator with Bjork, Pet Shops Boys, and Ellie Goulding, helping to shape and stretch their respective music (both live and recorded) in interesting manners. Within that vacuum, Alcorn’s work and Leppin’s interpretations toy with the SMCR model of communication where we’re already experiencing interruptions to those patterns due to politics and pandemics. The prim elegance of “Mercedes Sosa” giving way to the primal scratching within “Gilmore Blue” - a delay in how an idea is processed and rebroadcast like a game of Telephone askew.
Much of the recording is airy, almost isolated from the crowd and circumstances in which it was performed. Though The Heart Sutra is nearly a decade-old live performance, its power seems more palpable in this moment. Sometimes there are clashes, but often one sound demurs in favor of another. There is tension, timbre, and timidity as each instrument delicately weaves together. The results blend into a story, not unlike the music of early 20th century Russian composers (Asafyev, Prokofiev). Leppin creates not only for the pedal steel that buoys Alcorn’s work, but for each instrument in the ensemble to create natural reverberations and spacings within and outside of the pedal steel. Its place in sweeping ambient and thrilling drone compositions is well-worn by this point, but The Heart Sutra brings the instrument into a sextet setting with wildly vivid results.Īrranged by Janel Leppin, The Heart Sutra brings Alcorn’s pursuits to life with the gusto of impactfully lingering chamber music. The noted pedal steel player became the impetus for the instrument gaining gravitas outside its traditional motifs and models. One does not equate pedal steel playing to classical composition, but this was a life’s pursuit of Susan Alcorn. Susan Alcorn (Arranged by Janel Leppin) - The Heart Sutra