Star Quality is a collaboration between singer Eleanor Westbrook and guitarist Keir Cooper, and the premise is of Eleanor sending Keir a number of vocal improvisations ranging from folky to operatic, which would then be digitally manipulated and have guitar atmospheres added.
It is an intriguing proposition and one that veers over twelve diverse tracks from folk-inflected whimsy to stunning feats of acrobatic electrification. Star Quality starts out fairly simply with acoustic guitar and Eleanor’s pure clarity, but with the interjection of a found voice that joins her in an unusual duet. “Willow Tree : A Dialogue” is the only piece with words and the found voice causes an electric bluster in the guitar, a sense of darkness developing as the vocals turns frantic and faintly upsetting.
It is a rollercoaster of variance that stays all the way through the album, with the vocal gymnastics seeming to push the guitar further, moments of dissonance at odds with the wordless ululations. At points these ululations are emotionally compelling and almost animalistic; a siren’s call luring the guitar from the narrowing path. The guitar has many different faces, pure tones and dirty scrapes rubbing shoulders while the digital manipulations of the voice mean that nothing can be assured. Scattered patterns disappear briefly into the abyss, but are pulled back by the skin of their teeth. A Native American war whoop changes the mood, causing the atmosphere to take a decidedly experimental detour. Duetting with herself, Eleanor reduces the guitars to pure texture, the body and the strings ripe for new manifestations. As the album progresses, so things seem to be more minutely dissected, but a classical guitar dash and a brief aria will appear as a palate cleanser before being subsumed and all bets are off as to where it might then lead. The diversity is extraordinary and the patterns that voice and guitar draw when left alone are delightful but never enough, becoming saturated with emotion and desire.There are some speedy post-rock structures later in the running and the rhythmic drive takes on another direction, with the digitally twisted voice often at odds. It is a wild ride that is often discomfiting because it just won’t stay still or crest a particular wave without being overwhelmed by the swell, both elements struggling, adrift far from home. The final track tries to put some of this in perspective as the only face-to-face recording on the album and it imbues a sense of normality, even if the voice at one point sounds like an old trimphone.
It feels like an obvious conclusion to an adventure that pits voice and instrument into an energetic ballet, all movement and action seemingly spur of the moment decisions and quite breathtaking for it.-Mr Olivetti-
