If you’ve ever heard the expression “vocals as an instrument” and never really known what that means, then one listen to “Trigger” will answer any questions you may have about such a phrase. Here, Elea Calvet not only uses her considerable vocal range to narrate the song via the lyrics but also employs it add striking additional textures and tones via vocal soundscaping or the deft layering up of additional harmonies.
As the noirish and kaleidoscopic folkscape she creates swirls and squalls around her, as guitars flit and flutter, strings brood and boil, and sonic washes ebb and flow, it is these strange and seductive layers of voice, seemingly human and other, tortured and angelic, soaring and sinister, that add the necessary mercurial qualities that take the song out of the realm of merely dark folk and into a place that the likes of Nick Cave would recognize as home.
Perhaps a bit too disorienting for some, too dense and confusing, maybe too untethered in a post-folk sort of way, for others the song’s strongest selling point will be its fever dream quality, this echo of apocalyptic blues, this balance of the orchestrated and the accidental.
I count myself in the latter category.
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Spotify
Soundcloud
