Helpling, David

Artists: Dark Sky Alliance
P: 2024
Spotted Peccary Music is proud to present Interdwell, the debut album from the group Dark Sky Alliance, comprised of music industry veterans percussionist Jerry Marotta (Peter Gabriel, Indigo Girls), keyboardist Rupert Greenall (The Fixx), soundscaping synthesist Eric “the” Taylor, and cinematic sound-maestro guitarist David Helpling. This visionary premiere is a feat of sonic storytelling, each composition a different scene. Hidden in Interdwell’s kaleidoscopic sound are shades of all their past work: new wave guitar flourishes, tribal ambient percussion, richly layered synth-beds, Hans Zimmer- esque cinematic crescendos—but here, they coalesce into something uniquely vivid and bracingly original, something the members of Dark Sky Alliance could only make together.
Interdwell’s twelve compositions draw inspiration from the personal and the cosmic, the natural world and the fantastical. The album’s first epic opens with “Fortunate One” featuring chanting from the late Sonam Targee and builds layer upon layer from there. Halfway through, a propulsive bass groove entwines with Targee’s chants, shifting from melancholic to euphoric, a celebration of the time we’re gifted with those we love. “Warm Inlet” was inspired by a view of the Adirondacks on 7th Lake that can only be seen by boat; new wave guitar warbles paint the glimmering whitecaps, a steady bassline the powerful undercurrent, with Vangelis-esque synth chords the sun on the mountain peaks. Dreamlike and reflective, “The Slow Train Home,” was born from Eric “the” Taylor’s first ever recording session with Marotta and bassist Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson) over 20 years ago. Levin’s emotive upright bass glides through an electronic landscape both airy and rich, a traveler watching the hills roll by.
The title track takes the listener beyond Earth, depicting humanity’s journey through space: the tribal march of Marotta’s percussion as a voyager, shimmering sequencers as stars through the viewport, anthemic electric guitar as a starship’s acceleration, a distant destination finally reached.
Interdwell is a vivid, inspiring odyssey throughout, a work that carries the listener from a sun-dappled lake to the furthest reaches of space and back again, leaving only the desire to experience it all over again. 

Artist: David Helpling + Jon Jenkins
P: 2013
The dramatic final chapter of the award-winning three-album collaboration from David Helpling and Jon Jenkins, FOUND follows the path set by the duo’s previous genre-defying releases, TREASURE and THE CROSSING, blending cinematic electronics with rock power and spacemusic sensibilities to deliver a tremendously moving and meaningful resolution to the Helpling/Jenkins trilogy. Melodic and deep, powerful and atmospheric, FOUND is an epic work that plays like a big movie.  Highlighted by thundering drums and percussion, shimmering electric guitars, intimate pianos and lush synth textures, the album leads the listener through sweeping sonic vistas and deep intimate soundworlds where intricate and compelling rhythms drive the music to majestic heights, and then recede into soundscapes both serene and poignant.  The entire journey culminates in the emotionally charged title track, featuring a beautiful wordless vocal by virtuoso Miriam Stockley. “This is a record that’s meant to be listened to from start to finish in order to appreciate the full experience,” explains Jenkins, “but the album also plays a crucial role in the bigger picture, because it completes the trilogy, and we really wanted this to be a fitting close to the emotional arc that unfolds across all three albums.” While FOUND may be the third episode of a trilogy, this carefully crafted new release is not merely a rehashing of the two earlier works. Helpling & Jenkins pushed themselves to take their distinct sound to a new level where the deep, three-dimensional quality to the recording is instantly recognizable. Helpling explains, “Since this record is the conclusion to a trilogy, we felt a major responsibility to make something bigger and deeper, both musically and emotionally. I think all of that drive within us even went into technical things like the recording and mixing.” From the irresistible opening through the bold conclusion, FOUND completes a three-album six-year chapter of the Helpling/Jenkins collaboration on a grand scale, with deep emotion and unmistakeable style.  Filled with powerful rushes of adrenaline, beauty, loss and triumph, FOUND is an album for the ages, that discovers uncharted territory in the expanding world of electronic music.
 

Artist: David Helpling + Jon Jenkins
P: 2010
Since the release of their first collaboration, Treasure, David and Jon have spent the past two years in the depths of deep exile carefully crafting a new recording, and are now ready to resurface with THE CROSSING. With this latest collaboration, Helpling and Jenkins embark on a fresh sonic expedition - a cinematic, powerful and deeply melodic triumph that lifts their music to new heights. More than just a follow-up to Treasure, The Crossing is a climb, a challenge and most of all a continuation of the journey; a deliberate sequel that launches from the very place that Treasure so gently released the listener three years earlier.
Jenkins explains, "We wanted to take all of the the ingredients that make a great movie or book sequel - more action, more intensity, and somewhat darker with more daunting challenges - and express them through the music on this record."
According to Helpling, "The Crossing is a title with more than one meaning. Not only is it a metaphorical representation of an arduous and inspired journey across an unfathomable hardship and distance, but it is also a crossing of two paths, of two currents; the result of which is complex and beautiful as well as powerful and intangible."
The Crossing is a project which ignores current trends in ambient and electronic music, and Helpling and Jenkins are fearless in their pursuit of the lush and monumental sound that dominates their artistic vision. All the essentials for an epic journey are here: compelling and expansive multi-layered drum elements contrasted by alluring yet elusive textures, strong melodies appearing over powerful percussion, synths and guitars, all of which give way to vast spaces of deep and mystifying ambience.
From grand melodic vistas to enveloping sonic clouds of textural mystery, The Crossing leads the listener to the ends of the earth...and beyond.

Artist: David Helpling + Jon Jenkins
P: 2007
Treasure is a deceptive recording as collaborations go. Just when you think you have a melody or groove nailed as coming from Helpling, an element slips in that makes you think, no, Jenkins must have created this moment. You can never be sure on a CD that revels in the sonic sleight of hand of moody atmospheres that morph like cloud drifts and intoxicating melodies played on instruments that are just on the edge of conventional timbres, but have something slightly off. But while Helpling is a sonic chameleon, his ringing guitar lines do add a comforting touchstone when you can recognize it on tracks like "The Knowing."
My ears instantly go to the more rhythmic, quietly affirming tracks like "Grand Collision," "Treasure," and "The Knowing." These compositions emerge wraithlike out of swirling atmospheres and textures to quietly thundering percussion.
But the texture works provide their own charm, like the siren-like loops of "Beyond Words" or the cinematic expanse of "The Frozen Channel." That song actually began life as a soundtrack and the genesis of this project.
Treasure isn't something you discover, following the map to where X marks the spot. Instead, it's an album you'll cherish like a treasure, a secret, personal gift of lush, sonic immersion that carries a message from another world.

Artist: David Helpling
P: 1996
David Helpling's debut album is an exotic mélange of ambient textures, pulsing electro-tribal percussion, and world-music influences. Helpling mans the guitars, keyboards, and electronics, and gets assistance from bassist and sometimes vocalist Matthew Stewart in creating the moody, alluring landscape of BETWEEN GREEN AND BLUE. As its title seems to promise, the album lulls listeners into the space between primary and secondary colors; between clear, ordered thoughts; between waking and dreaming.
Helpling's melodies are often plaintive and haunting, yet an insistent percussive pulse keeps BETWEEN GREEN AND BLUE highly energized, making the whole thing feel like a trip through some digitally enhanced dream jungle. Sustained bass evokes rolling thunder at times, while the sequenced, multi-patterned drums make the sonic veldt teem with the life of insects, animals, and creeping vegetation. The high-end production is detail-rich, deepening the sonic experience (which is best enjoyed under headphones), yet for all of its intensity, BETWEEN GREEN AND BLUE is very atmospheric and soothing.

Artist: David Helpling
P: 2022
A massive double album composed over ten years, IN was born from finding wonder in the tiniest of places. Only one square inch of forest holds a world of color and life. On this miniature scale, a shard of lichen is a monument, a twig a skyscraper, an arm’s length a universe. IN is an exploration of that magic space: an expanse of delicate subtlety and minuscule vibrancy that suggests a poignancy of existence itself. IN builds this world with sounds from across Helpling’s career. Diamond-bright granular textures twinkle atop churning synths on wistful opener “Waves Dream of Breaking.” Chimes and echoes conjure cavernous yearning on “The Cold Distance Between,” while the climactic “In Waves of Fire” ascends on thundering drums before a shattering crescendo. Across this cinematic album, analogue synthesizers, digital synthesizers and ambient guitar entwine, untangle and entwine again. Yet here, Helpling explores new instruments as well as familiar ones. A 1981 Yamaha CP70 Electric Grand Piano summons a classic, fresh organic sound as it explores the vast scenes set by his textural guitar. This piano murmurs across chasms in the aftermath of “In Waves of Fire,” augmenting the well-established sound palette cultivated throughout years of previous works. Unique and diverse artists stepped into David Helpling’s vision with their own inspired expressions. Portland fine art photographer Brandt Campbell captured IN’s micro-world in breathtaking macrophotography. Co-producer Howard Givens worked closely with Helpling to explore the hidden nuances of this album and elevate each piece to its final form. Matthew Schoening’s electric cello is enchanting and elegiac on “You Already Are.” Miriam Stockley lends her rich, ethereal vocals to “Slipping” and “I Too Am Coming Home,” balancing hope and melancholy with each ebb and flow of her voice. Award-winning multi-instrumentalist Benjy Wertheimer plays the Esraj, an expressive bowed instrument from India, on the buoyant “The Bliss You Always Carried.” Vocalist Nidhi Bhatmuley gives a soaring performance on the post-rock flavored “This Burning Sky,” an emotional epic that evokes Hans Zimmer’s work with Lisa Gerrard. Through these significant contributions, Helpling has realized a macro-focus on his contemplation of life. Inspired by the vastness of small spaces, IN is both simple and intricate, both expansive and intimate. And just as the spaces that inspired them, these thirteen pieces unveil new images when examined. Here, a pebble by a stream is a fjord falling into the sea. Here, nature wrought in new colors; the greens and blues of tree and sky replaced by microbial fuchsia, folded violet. Here, a world—vivid, vibrant, waiting. 

Artist: David Helpling
P: 2019
Helpling's most colorful and textural recording to date.
On RUNE, renowned composer and instrumentalist David Helpling delivers another album of pure ambient electric guitar performances. Building on the sound of 2017's A SEA WITHOUT MEMORY, RUNE represents the stunning evolution of Helpling's ambient guitar explorations into a new realm of craft and production, shifting to a deeper focus on composition, phrasing, melody, and emotion. Shimmering textures, purposeful phrases, and expressive arrangements mingle together and flow freely from a wellspring of inspiration into a sea of beauty, resulting in what may very well be Helpling's most colorful and textural recording to date.
The music of RUNE is directly influenced by the waters of the ocean and the Norse Rune Laguz that speaks of deep wisdom and respect for the sea, representing the universal ocean and the collective memory of all life. The album is inspired by the creative, destructive, and life-sustaining forces of water as depicted in the spiritual wisdom and poetry of this ancient Norse rune, and while creating the music, Helpling immersed himself in this monumental idea of an all-encompassing ocean.
David has an illustrious history of creating lush synth-laden music, but on RUNE he has turned to only guitars and a custom rig to directly and honestly explore a new level of ambient expression, and while the recognizable sound of Helpling's classic whirlpooling guitar still swirls at the heart of RUNE, most listeners will forget that the entire album was created without the use of keyboards, synthesizers or computer-based sound generators once they are submerged in the lush organic soundscapes. The layers of detail, order, and space create an immersive, honest and meaningful music that results in so much more than just another ambient guitar offering. The compositions - emotional and cinematic in scale - stand on their own, rewarding the listener with music, melody, a powerful sound, and heartfelt performance that is truly wondrous and magical.

Artist: David Helpling
P: 1999
The guitarist is still influenced by Patrick O'Hearn, sharing the same penchant for smoldering, sensual rhythms and simple yet highly evocative melodies. He arranges it all on guitar and synthesizers, although it's often difficult to tell which is which. Helpling sends his guitar through a stream of effects and delays, using volume swells to mask its attack, turning his stringed instrument into an ambient orchestra. Across sequencer rhythm loops that sound like a pan-ethno drum troupe floating in space, Helpling layers surging synth pads draped with simple melodies that create a moody, cinematic expanse. Because he's a guitarist, Helpling has a natural sense of phrasing that eludes many keyboardists in this area of melodic electronics.

Artist: Eleon & David Helpling
P: 2018 
Dreams Beyond Terra is the debut album from electronica recording artist ELEON who co-produced this project with guitarist and ambient musician David Helpling. Comprised of twelve engrossing compositions, Dreams Beyond Terra is a sonically epic and soulfully elevating listening excursion into euphoric ‘chill’ and downtempo-trance. Likewise, some cuts feature Helpling on electric guitar, which he ethereally weaves into these lushly majestic soundscapes.
Sounding off this fantastical journey is “Species Communicating”, a piece that immediately conveys a rapturous sense of travel by flight with its pronounced bassline and steady trance-dance rhythm. Seemingly unbounded by any specific locality, it’s as if one is viewing oceans and landscapes while soaring high above the earth. Moving next into “Terra Sanctuary”, breathy vocal intonations add another element of intrigue to what could be described as a ‘chill-trance’ anthem. Tracks like “Carbon Beings” and “Bionic Travelers” employ the kinds of digital sequencing and heavy downtempo beats that often characterize ‘psybient’ music, except that the overall mood here tends to the more euphoric and extrospective as opposed to the psychedelic and introspective. My favorite composition herein is the mesmerizingly beautiful “Earth to Heavenly Places”, with its title perfectly summarizing the overall feel of the album. Sensually trippy and fantasy-like, softly-uttered female vocals lightly scattered among the piece lends it an extra dimension of mystifying intrigue. “Will Your Heart Dance with Mine” is the most subdued and light-bodied track on the album, with its subtle rhythm and ethereal synth-pads conveying a floating airiness that pleasantly recalls some material from Bryan Carrigan’s Inspired album.
Integrating trance, downtempo and ambient musical concepts for an end-result that will appeal to a wide-range of electronic music lovers, Dreams Beyond Terra easily makes the short-list for this year’s finest electronica albums!

Artist: Jon Jenkins
P: 2005
Immersed in mysterious ambience, and alive with compelling energy and powerful grooves, BEYOND CITY LIGHT offers the first taste of new music from Jon Jenkins since his landmark release, FLOW (a Billboard Magazine Critics Choice).
Joined by a host of guests, including Erik Wøllo, David Helpling, and Greg Klamt, among others, Jenkins embarks on a sonic sojourn through sparkling city lights and beyond. Floating on deep rivers of textural ambience, piano tonalities, guitar textures, atmospheric loops, percussion, and ethereal vocalizations, journey through vast and scenic spaces, to a realm of deep sleep and dying embers.