By Eyal Hareuveni
The Brooklyn-based vocalist, vocal artist, and storyteller Shelly Hirsch is
a force of nature. Every performance of hers is an arresting and seemingly
effortless, free improvised race of eccentric, seductive stories, amusing
observations, imaginative fantasies, Synesthesia-like experiences,
onomatopoeic tricks, and pure sonic explorations. These performances
completely blur the distinction between the conscious and the unconscious,
the real and the dreamt, and are always equipped with healthy doses of
humour, insightful wisdom, and unexpected lyricism.
In her over forty-year career, Hirsch has collaborated with John Zorn (whose
label, Tzadik, released her autobiographical work O’ Little Town of East New
York, 1995), Christian Marclay, Hans Reichel, Fred Frith, Anthony Coleman,
Ikue Mori, Elliott Sharp, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, and Joke Lanz.
Hirsch first collaborated with Austrian drummer Alfred Vogel (the founder of
Boomslang Records and the Bezau Beats festival) when she guested in The How
Noisy Are The Rooms? (with Joke Lanz and fellow vocal artist Almut Kühne)
sophomore album Tühü (Boomslang, 2025). The digital-only Vanish teams Hirsch
with one of the most resourceful rhythm sections emerging from the Swiss
Alps – Christian Weber on double bass (who plays with Joke Lanz in Sudden
Infant, and is a lecturer at the universities in Basel, Bern, and Lausanne)
– and the Austrian Alps – Vogel (who collaborates with Weber in another
trio, SATT). The debut album of this trio was recorded by Vogel in October
2024 and was mixed and mastered by Weber.
Vanish is a 54-minute “let it all” (Hirsch’s words) wild ride of a
one-of-a-kind woman who just wanted red shoes but insists on experiencing
life fully, in a way that often leads her to an almost sensory meltdown. It
consists of seven pieces – stories – that correspond and complement each
other. She can jump from a sexual experience (including her thoughts about
pubic hair) to linguistic observations, foodie passions, and acrobatic
vocalisations in the most intuitive, organic manner possible, and she sounds
totally possessed, certain that there is no earthly power that can stop her.
The ever-versatile Weber and Vogel crisscross Hirsch’s unpredictable, almost
psychedelic stream of stories, memories, and associations with incisive,
razor-sharp rhythmic interventions, fully aware that Hirsch can not be
disciplined into any rhythmic patterns, and they can only ornament her vocal
flights with fragmented, surprising pulses.
This trio sounds great. Urgent, intense, daring, and deeply human. This trio
must hit the road.