Bianca Scout - The Heart Of The Anchoress
LABEL: First TerraceFirst Terrace Records is happy to present a new album from Bianca Scout, the South London based musician and choreographer. Having, in recent times, worked with luminaries such as Space Afrika, Mika Levi, Klein and Coby Sey, the time is certainly ripe for Scout to present her own vision and to firmly establish her talent among the rich tapestry of her peers.
The record was formed and sculpted from a three day recording session at St Giles Church in Camberwell (shout out Nick the Vic). The airy experiments and embryonic compositions that emerged from these sessions were then transferred from those lofty halls to the intimacy of the bedroom studio where they were twisted, teased, pruned and nurtured into the collection of sublime songs here presented. Scout's innate sense for narrative - and ear for exquisite creakiness - acted the shepherd for every gesture.
Incidental sounds (the creaking of the pump organ, the sirens of the metropolitan police) are favoured and serve to ground the listener in place, while Scout’s intuitive, mantra-like songwriting (evidenced in tracks like Vanguard, This City Had A Wall ) succeeds in opening portals to heavenly vistas and scenes of golden-hour romance. All this while never outstaying a welcome or over-egging a pudding - partly due to a sharp sense of pace and a willingness to change direction at any moment (hear Dedicated Two, Proud To Employ A Qualified Ghost).
It should also be mentioned that what is presented here is in fact only one colour, filtered from the white light of Bianca’s creative output. Having recently premiered an accompanying contemporary dance performance at London’s Southbank Centre, and with several videos and multimedia projects due to follow (all set within the same universe as The Heart of the Anchoress) it’s clear that she has much more to offer, and we look forward to witnessing the material evolve once again.