When The Orielles embarked on the creation of ‘Tableau’, they shifted their production technique to one that prioritised extreme creativity. What emerged is their most experimental and exhilarating release to date, existing as the product of pent-up pandemic energy, when their usually tight-knit artistic practice was severed.
A reinvention from the lo-fi, DIY indie that defined their early days, ‘Tableau’ is The Orielles’ first truly contemporary record. Within it, they forge a sonic universe entirely enveloped in a bewitching, chaotic darkness, that spans from euphoric dance (‘Airtight’ and ‘The Room’) to true pop (‘Darkened Corners’), and Stereolab-indepted indie (‘Chromo II’). Their fourth record, ‘Tableau’ is centered around a new mindset where members Sidonie Hand-Halford, Esmé Dee Hand-Halford and Henry Carlyle Wade re-imagined studio time as an opportunity to experiment with, and perfect, their craft. Recorded in the coastal town of Eastbourne, where shared meals were deemed as important as the recording itself, ‘Tableau’ is strictly demo-free and self-produced, in collaboration with Joel Anthony Patchett. It’s an emphasis on creative control that verges on anti-industry, or at least current industry norms, through an unapologetic prioritisation of untethered creative practice.
Though not dissimilar from many of 2022’s releases, in that it exists on the fringes of post-pandemic life, The Orielles approach to recording is perhaps indebted to the turbulence yet stillness of the decade so far. It’s freedom is forged through concise methodology, as the band delved into experimental techniques including Brian Eno’s famous Oblique Strategy cards, Wadada Leo Smith’s graphic scoring method, and even their own method of editing and rearranging coined “To Goyt it”, after their secondary recording location.
This change in approach seems to consolidate a new era for the band, one that is fully on display on ‘The Improvisation 001’, a haunting single-take improvisation with the Northern Session Collective (who’s strings define much of the ambience on the album) that encompasses the sprawling, otherworldly soundscape of ‘Tableau’. It also makes way for moments of sheer beauty, such as ‘Beam/s’, the genuinely stunning lead single where Esme’s vocals anchor a thrilling crescendo of spacey-synths and fast, distorted drumming. Here, the band’s unity as an artistic collective is unmistakable.
‘Tableau’ sees the The Orielles venture into the unknown, with the sole ambition of testing their limits (or lack thereof). They succeed, resurfacing with new vision, and setting an example of what can occur when artists have the opportunity to revel in full, untethered, boundless creativity.
9/10
Words: Laura Molloy
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