(((O))) : Elizabeth Prophet – Resist Your Soul’s Urge for Freedom

Balance is one of the aspects of music we often don’t consciously think about when listening. We hum and sing along to melodies and choruses, we feel a beat, we recognise keys, chords and riffs  and how they make us feel even without knowing their names. Writers mostly use patterns, building blocks and well worn structures to guide our emotions and to avoid surprises.

Of course progressive writers and musicians are less bound by these rules and constraints, but they are usually still there in some way. Improvisation in drone, jazz and the like stretch these constraints, but to be listenable we still need a balance that provides us with the satisfaction a listener needs.

This balance is masterfully created in the four tracks on the debut from Adelaide improvisors Elizabeth Prophet. Born of years of jamming between guitarist Max McKinnon and drummer Paul Sloan, the two were joined by Jed Palmer and laid down a few hours of improv over a day or two. Palmer then got to work assembling the four tracks with input of McKinnon and Sloan.

The trio have created tunes that flow with little repetition and formal structure, yet retain an identity through a series of pegs in the ground that plot a course. It’s as though they have divided and compressed a 30 minute live set of continuous sounds. It feels spontaneous, natural, and like a team that understand the journey each of them wants to take. It sounds free of constraints and free of pretention.

Resist Your Soul’s Urge For Freedom is an ironic title given what I’ve just said. It comes from a message broadcast by drones to Shanghi residents during covid lockdown. They were told “Do not open the window or sing”. Everyone knows music can be freedom or enslavement. Elizabeth Prophet are firmly in the freedom camp.