Coolmixes

Marc Hellner’s name may be familiar as one half of revered Chicagoan audio-visual artists Pulseprogramming, or as a touring member of Windy City regulars L’Altra. A prolific musician with a latent fondness for ‘real’ instruments to match the dexterous digital manipulations of his regular combo, Marriages - ironically given the title - is effectively Hellner’s debut solo longplayer; an outlet for the aforementioned compositional overload but also a thoroughly focused collection that consistently errs toward intimate beauty.

In fact, the title is hardly ironic, as Hellner’s modus operandi involves the discreet deployment of collaborators; using smart, likeminded local talents to help decant his vision into an album that’s constantly alluring, often breathtaking, but never predictable. Among the luminaries involved here are Tortoise percussionist John Herndon, Cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm (Boxhead Ensemble), double bassist Josh Abrams (Town & Country) and sound designer/programmers Joshua Eustis and Charles Cooper – aka Telefon Tel Aviv. The latter also produced the record, helping Hellner marshal the numerous players and diverse sound sources into a winningly homogenous whole.

Raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Marc Hellner was a youthful Anglophone fan of the Smiths along with various British shoegazing types and, most tellingly with regards to Marriages, art bands such as Talk Talk and Blue Nile which possessed that rare alchemical knack of matching the sonically esoteric with the emotionally direct. A move to rainy Portland, Oregon coincided with the discovery of classical minimalism and works by the likes of, Arvo Part, Steve Reich and Howard Skempton – influences that have impacted subtly but significantly on Marriages. Hellner later moved to Chicago and the rest is leftfield musical history.

All of which makes Marriages a veritable thoroughbred of a solo record. An album that interleaves recognizable pop structures with delicate ambient passages, all of it warmly coloured by string arrangements and the sentient presence of live musicians, lending a warm lucidity to Hellner’s typically meticulous soundscapes. The result is music of longing and quiet spaces—imaginary love songs crafted from disparate sources, but with an undeniably singular voice.

Marriages – made in heaven.

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