This album is AJ True’s soundtrack to Erica Glynn’s film, ‘She Who Must Be Loved,’ which tells the story of the director’s own mother, Freda Glynn: a vibrant and tenacious Kaytetye woman from central Australia. She is lovingly described as a 78 year old Aboriginal woman, stills photographer, co-founder of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA), and Imparja TV, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, radical, pacifist, grumpy old woman, who in equal measure loves the limelight and total privacy. As the film is heavy with dialogue there was a need to the music to be restrained, and not to get in the way. Consequently, this minimalist, with True using vintage keyboards, organs, synths, harmoniums, a 1916 upright Beale piano and electric guitar to create soundscapes.

I was somewhat surprised as to how well this works as a piece of music on its own, removed from the visual and dialogue, and how much it made me think of the outback and the huge sky. At times it feels quite sterile, but the way the music is layered always allows for a certain amount of warmth, and there is no doubt that the most important instrument is silence and space. He allows the music to move and shift like a living organism, but always at its own pace which is neither rapid nor laboured. When this album was offered to me for review I was somewhat intrigued, and I am so glad I decided to take it on as this is both relaxing and peaceful, yet somehow there is always a feeling of direction and inner strength. This is not some simple meandering but the feeling that every delicate note has a real purpose, and I found myself being reminded of Roger Eno’s amazing 2005 album ‘Fragile’, as it has the same inner beauty and power. Sublime and superb.

Rating: 8/10

Links:
https://ajtrue.net/