I suspect that there are few folk players who wouldn’t describe their music as intimate; it has become the industry buzzword for would-be sensitive artists. But intimate doesn’t just mean quiet or unadorned; it isn’t necessarily a singer whispering in hushed tones about affairs of the heart. I mean, it can be that, but it can also be like the music made by Torrent Sound.
Danish singer-songwriter Frederik Damhus, the man behind the moniker, is certianly able to kick up a succulent sonic storm when he choses, but even when the beats are driving and the energy is up, there is something direct about the music, a feeling that he is singing just for you the listener, whether he is serenading us as he does with ‘Rosy Dawn’ or missing us, as with the stark and seductive ‘I Do.’
‘Helpless Love’ falls somewhere between the solid songwriting of David Gray and the floating cinematics of Bon Iver, drifting as much as it drives, chart-friendly but ticking those more mainstream boxes without losing its affection towards, not to mention connection with, its audience. Similarly, ‘Colors’ grooves, ‘Suddenly’ sweeps and swoons, and a second, stripped-back version of ‘Stay The Night’ ends the album in that heady confused state that comes with new love.
Helpless, as the title suggests, is about the bewildering and beautiful, contradictory and exquisite thing we call love; it is romantic to the core and often wonderfully and wilfully innocent in its musings on relationships. But always, whether through deft composition or understated production, sensual lyrics or smart songwriting, it is never anything other than captivating, personal, powerful and… intimate.
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