REVIEW: Helena Deland – 'From the Series of Songs “Altogether Unaccompanied” Vol. III & Vol. IV'

Written for London in Stereo [1/10/18]

Much of Helena Deland’s music is beautifully disjointed – splintered in structure, lyrically oblique, varied in genre – and concerns memory. It’s fitting for Deland to have released disparate “memories in song form” this year in short volumes instead of a full record. The final instalment of the Montréal artist’s ‘Altogether Unaccompanied' series is not so much a significant step up from Vol. I & Vol. II than is a continuation of Deland’s intricate, intimate songwriting. ‘Two Queries’ is a creaking, Angel Olsen-esque song that does find some unity in its noirish counterpart, ‘A Stone is a Stone’. But these tracks pale in comparison to the hypnotic highs of ‘Rise’ and the fibrous, synth-pop tug of anxiety anthem, ‘Claudion’. The latter two songs make Deland’s memories everlasting.