The Sovereign Self . named after a line from Dennis Potter, the late
television auteur . is the fifth album from Glasgow's Trembling Bells, their
first since 2012's The Marble Downs, a collaboration with Will Oldham. It is a
driving, dramatic and at times hallucinatory work, filled with a great sense of
tension and release; a witches' brew, a psychedelic stew mixing up the range of
the band's musical interests . everything from ramshackled ballads to ancient
May Day chants, swaggering acid rock to swirling prog
epics.
“Some songs are a little challenging” says lead vocalist Lavinia Blackwall,
“Bringing Alasdair C Mitchell into the band means we have the interplay of two
guitar parts. Musically, this album has been a lot more collaborative and
democratic and as a result a lot of our
other influences have come through . psychedelia, early.70s prog and rock.
It's heavier and darker. I find it physically and emotionally draining to sing
these songs, because they are quite intense you have to put so much into
them.”
The range of cultural and counter.cultural interest from the band is apparent on
the front cover of The Sovereign Self . a series of twenty portraits painted by
Lavinia Blackwall: an eclectic gallery of genius from Emily Dickinson to
Aeschylus; Lou Reed to Ovid.
