Following the announcement of their collaborative album Trace, out May 12th, cellist Helen Money and composer Will Thomas are sharing their new single “Half Asleep”. The piece finds the duo crafting a lush arrangement of primarily cello and piano, each instrument intoning atop steady chordal figures that sound distant and familiar, like meeting a friend in a dream.
Trace is a masterclass in sound design. Chesley’s formidable skill as a cellist and composer ground the compositions with rich organic sounds of cello and bow. Thomas’s equally deft hand manipulating electronics and keyboards create potent frameworks that bolster the sense of mystery and searching across the album. Chesley and Thomas’s unique voices as composers remain discernible and present throughout the album, but Trace is a celebration of connection of collaboration with an acute sense of details and the power they convey. On Trace, the duo utilize timbre, tone and dynamics as essential tools in crafting stunning emotive narratives. Together, the duo wield sound with inquisitive aplomb, burrowing into each other’s sonic aesthetics and unearthing irrefutable beauty.
