flyvintageandvinyl

Helen Ballentine�s spellbinding first full-length album Quiet the Room�is the sound of a window opening, a barrier dissolving. Across these�fourteen tracks, the outside world seeps in and the inside world crawls�out. The result is a stunning and quietly moving work that reflects the�journeys we take through the physical and spiritual realms of ourselves in�order to show up for the world.�

While writing the album in the summer of 2021, Ballentine drew�inspiration from her childhood home in Mount Vernon, NY. What she set�out to capture on Quiet the Room was not the innocence of childhood,�as it is so often portrayed, but the intense complexity of it. Past and�present merge Escher-like in this dreamlike space laced with elements�of fantasy, magic, and mystery. Musically, this translates into a sound that�feels somehow weighty and ephemeral all at once, like a time lapse of�copper corroding.

To capture the effortless blend of electronic, ambient, folk, and rock,�Ballentine and her collaborator Noah Weinman brought in producer�Andrew Sarlo to record at Chicken Shack studio in Upstate New York,�close to where Ballentine grew up. �We wanted every song to have that�little twinkle, but also a sense of crumbling,� she says. These songs thrum�with moments of anxiety that boil over into moments of peace, as on lead�single �Whatever Fits Together,� which chugs to a ragged start before�the gears catch and ease. On �It�s Like a Secret,� Ballentine struggles to�connect and let people in, recognizing that no one can ever fully know�our inner worlds and that to understand each other is to cross a barrier�and leave a part of ourselves behind. And yet, on closing track �You are�my House,� she finds a way to reach out. �You are the walls and floors of�my room,� she sings in perfect, hopeful harmony.