Tess Cunningham - Let's Compare Scars

  by Lisa Torem

published: 10 / 1 / 2014

Label: Tess Cunningham
Format: CDS

intro

Ethereal debut EP from Australian-born and London-based singer-songwriter, Tess Cunningham

There are lovely sounds and vibrant ideas emanating from native Australian and now London based Tess Cunningham’s soul. It is hard to believe that her EP is a debut, as she has a bedrock maturity that usually comes from developing many studio productions. She collaborates with experimental pop producer Marc Pell (Micachu and the Shapes, Maxixe, Benin City). Cunningham further describes her unique sound as “ballet rock” or “pianocore”. She fronted Tess and the D’Urbervilles in 2011 and showcased her mother lode of originals. Her inspirations are varied: William Blake, Dr. Seuss, Nina Simone and the Pixies; and her background as a ballerina also informs her writing; her strong visual sense has enabled her to depict her songs on assorted videos. Tess Cunningham’s new release ‘Let’s Compare Scars’ is ethereal and wonderful. The singer-songwriter’s first track and title song conveys curiosity and vulnerability within measures. “Standing on the outside, looking in…Why can’t you give me a chance?” she asks, in a waif-like tone. “I glued it together, now it’s falling apart,” she continues, in a voice so haunting and hypnotic, so engaging, you want to blast through an ice storm to rescue her. In ‘Nevermind’ that voice cycles about like a carnival Ferris wheel. There is a curious blend of ambience that lightly lifts up her narrative. Cunningham is so expressive, and as the lyric states: “Not a second wasted.” The piano builds powerfully but carefully. “It’s coming back, an echo,” she states in ‘Stripped’. “Shadows circle in an unfamiliar way…I’m stripped to the bone/Thunder in my soul, it is dancing again.” Cunningham’s lyrics are so plaintive, primal and personal. Here they are especially effective as a marvellous Latin beat seduces us in the background. The essentially piano-driven ‘Come Home’ renders Cunningham breathless. “In the dark, you’re running against the wind.” The levitating violin may be that surly gust that she’s defining. The last song, ‘The Crystal Cabinet’ speaks of stars and mountains and other magical intangibles. Whilst she can be compared to Lisa Germano or Tori Amos, Tess Cunningham is irrefutably original with a voice that could make an angel high-five her.

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