Jill Lorean
Philip Joseph Rae
for fans of… Portishead, PJ Harvey, Big Thief, Patti Smith
The sprawling new album Peace Cult finds the trio of Jill Lorean, Andy Monaghan (Frightened Rabbit) and Pete Kelly working with space and control, Jill’s fragmented ideas brought together over time, deliberate care and attention, with a generous focus on the finer details.
Released via Monohands Records, it makes for a bold new step in Jill Lorean’s career. From early success with her band Sparrow & The Workshop, then Three Queens In Mourning (with Alex Neilson and Alasdair Roberts), Scottish collective Hen Hoose, and a rich body of theatre and soundtrack work.
Front and centre of the new work is the burgeoning relationship on Jill Lorean as a trio, rather than the solo project that the name suggests.
Monaghan and Kelly infuse Jill’s sketches with vivid ideas and bring the songs into electrifying shape. On record the result is an expansion of the previous palette, a rousing concoction of piano, synth, harmonica, bowed guitars, and more. Live they distil the already paired back arrangements to their core and use dynamic instinctively, often using fuzz as their guiding light to take us through Jills narrative landscapes, new shapes and colours are presented all of their own.
Peace Cult feels like being in the heart of a journey, rather than at the end of one looking back. That unsteadiness makes such a varied and interesting listen.
“It is good to have an end to journey toward,” wrote Ursula Le Guin, “but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
