Electronic artist Elsa Hewitt is hitting big this year. When you are a part of Gilles Peterson’s “Future Bubblers” program, it means you probably got what it takes, but sometimes it takes a while to make it.
Elsa obviously is full of ideas and doesn’t necessarily want to spread them thinly over time - she is going full throttle this year with an album trilogy. Cameras From Mars started off earlier this year, getting the praises for all those subtle rhythms and ambient mood swings. The second part, her current album, Dum Spiro Spero (for those not that familiar with Latin, ‘while I breathe, I hope’), goes even further. For the better.
If you’ve heard the album title before, then you might be more into Japanese heavy metal, since the purveyors of that sound, “Dir En Grey” came up with such a title a few years back. But I’m sure Elsa was not inspired by them. She’s more into all the more subtle forms of modern electronic music. As somebody else put it, somewhere between the dubstep king Burial and modern avant-garde artist Juliana Barwick.
And that could be the perfect description of what Elsa Hewitt has come up on this second installment of her trilogy. Her dubstep touches do have some of Burial’s sinister overtones but are usually in perfect sync with Barwick-like subdued vocals. And although Hewitt also uses her voice as a part of the soundscape she creates, unlike Barwick, she does introduce lyrics, making a song like “Per Aspera Ad Astra” (she does like Latin, doesn’t she?) and “Tantrum” word-full, instead of wordless soundscapes.
What is one of the most appealing element of this album is that you are, of course, conscious all the time that you are listening to an album of electronic music, but you always have a sense of human engagement (occasional use of ‘ordinary’ instruments also helps), which gives Dum Spiro Spero its true soul. On the evidence of this, Elsa may not have to hope too long that the acclaim she deserves will come her way.
