Dot Allison
Consciousology
Sonic Cathedral
2023
Sliding through the slipstream, Dot Allison’s Consciousology creates sonic passageways rarely heard but thoroughly unforgettable. She is the gentlest of explorers, framing landscapes by choosing unexpected aural pathways. With a voice literally floating on air, she merges elements in surprising ways, choosing some of the most audacious instruments while still finding the gentle heart and soul inherent in them.
Having been the lead singer in One Dove over thirty years ago, the past in no way prepares you for the spell she casts. Subtle electronics open Shyness of Crowns, yet are quickly replaced by plucked banjo and a most glorious and intriguing string arrangement by Hannah Peel. On top of it all, Allison’s voice drifts into the frame as the song refers to the behaviour of trees and how they distance at the wood’s crown, though the song deals with the orbit of love. That opening gambit, most unexpected, perfectly frames an album that continues to reveal unexpected corners and colours.
Segueing from Shyness of Crowns, the arrangement of Unchanged grows from the simple sound of an acoustic guitar building out of the mist of electronics. Low in the mix, a bass emerges, playing at a huge volume that has been put low into the mix to give one the feel without the total volume. By the time the strings and drums enter, the song has achieved another level entirely. Allison proves to be a master of creating conditions and musical contradictions that manage to merge perfectly.
Intriguingly, a song like Bleached by the Sun opens with simple acoustic guitar strains, yet by the song’s end, the instrumentation is nowhere near as unassuming as the opening. Along the way, sounds merge, while the lyrics speak of a far different world that is possible, “Don’t give up on us yet, there is more we can be/ In our roots there is soul, an innate empathy/ Or will these words be bleached by the sun?” However, it is up to us to take a chance and make a choice.
Perhaps the most audacious track is 220Hz. Using a largely electronic framework, its title comes from the frequency where tree roots communicate below the ground, forming a “Wood Wide Web.” Continuing that theme, Allison gives voice to a Brachyglottis Sunshine plant on Double Rainbow. Recorded through a Neuman U67 mike, it combines acoustic guitar and the singer’s voice, celebrating the patterns of nature, its molecules and an endless array of colours. Despite sounding like this might all be just a tad too much mumbo-jumbo. The song takes shape in a most intriguing fashion.
By creating a new palette of sounds, Dot Allison merges musical worlds, finding ways to not just colour outside the lines but obliterate them altogether. “Consciousology” reinvents musical frameworks, merging sounds and worlds in ways that expand our musical vocabulary.