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Helen Ballentine's spellbinding first full-length album Quiet the Roomis the sound of a window opening, a barrier dissolving. Across thesefourteen tracks, the outside world seeps in and the inside world crawlsout. The result is a stunning and quietly moving work that reflects thejourneys we take through the physical and spiritual realms of ourselves inorder to show up for the world. While writing the album in the summer of 2021, Ballentine drewinspiration from her childhood home in Mount Vernon, NY. What she setout 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 andpresent merge Escher-like in this dreamlike space laced with elementsof fantasy, magic, and mystery. Musically, this translates into a sound thatfeels somehow weighty and ephemeral all at once, like a time lapse ofcopper corroding. To capture the effortless blend of electronic, ambient, folk, and rock,Ballentine and her partner and collaborator Noah Weinman brought inproducer Andrew Sarlo to record at Chicken Shack studio in Upstate NewYork, close to where Ballentine grew up. InchWe wanted every song to havethat little twinkle, but also a sense of crumbling,Inch she says. These songsthrum with moments of anxiety that boil over into moments of peace,as on lead single InchWhatever Fits Together,Inch which chugs to a raggedstart before the gears catch and ease. On InchIt's Like a Secret,Inch Ballentinestruggles to connect and let people in, recognizing that no one can everfully know our inner worlds and that to understand each other is to crossa barrier and leave a part of ourselves behind. And yet, on closing trackInchYou are my House,Inch she finds a way to reach out. InchYou are the walls andfloors of my room,Inch she sings in perfect, hopeful harmony. As the album cover invites, these are dollhouse songs to which we benda g
