by Jess Makler (unslump.substack.com)
From its first electric riff, Hélène Barbier’s Panorama grabs your shoulders by its proverbial hands and shakes you into a new world, rife with whispered whimsy and searing instrumentals.
Barbier’s third album under her own name is a no-wave masterpiece of dislocated 70s punk. Born in France and currently local to Montreal, she crafts mind-massaging basslines and meandering lyrics in both French and English.
Barbier has always been tongue-in-cheek with her originality. Known for founding the innovative indie label and zine collaboration Celluloid Lunch with her husband, Joe Chamandy, who also plays guitar in her band, she’s released compilations like “Weird Scenes From Inside The Droll Mind!”. It’s no surprise Barbier’s latest record tackles seemingly nonsensical subjects. Panorama takes the listener on a journey through space and time, creating another world. Songs see-saw from describing boredom (“Milquetoast”), to more conventional reflections on heartbreak (“Dans l’os”).
It may be easy to describe Panorama as cinematic, its ebbs and flows evoking Charlie Kauffman’s Synecdoche, New York or the subtlety of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Intensified by beautiful music videos shot on Super-8, where “nothing extraordinary happens, but where, in reality, everything matters,” shots of Barbier’s wedding are entwined with visions of her walking through Montreal.
Barbier’s lyrics and wandering basslines twirl around the expert guitar playing of Meg Duffy (Hand Habits, Perfume Genius, Kevin Morby) and space-age key-slapping by Wes McNeil (Night Lunch). On the track “Plastique Couch,” even the barks of Barbier’s dog, Toody, appear rooted in this new reality. The dog is barking to the beat! The violin arrangements on standout track “Kindness in a Cup” are an especially intense moment.
Despite the album’s brief 27 minute runtime, Panorama is unexpected and unreal, eye-opening and unique. Like waking up from a long and restful sleep to see the bright sun of a new day, Panorama is off-kilter in a way that finds us balanced.