Silence & Wisdom

The actual musical content of the two albums by Deux Filles is largely ignored, due to the strange circumstances of their conception and release: Simon Fisher Turner and Colin Lloyd Tucker created the personas of two tragic French women, even appearing in gauzily-photographed drag on the album covers. The tongue in cheek deception so fascinates reviewers that the actual contents of the albums go all but unnoticed. This is a shame, because Deux Filles' 1982 debut Silence and Wisdom is a lovely album with much to recommend it. Ambient pop in the tradition of then-current artists like the Lost Jockey and Virginia Astley (whose From Gardens Where We Feel Secure this album strongly resembles in its use of found sound and ambient recordings), Silence and Wisdom blends watery piano, occasionally ghostly vocals, sheets of synthesizers, heavily processed guitars, and only the barest minimum of percussion into an excellent example of post-Eno, pre-Orb ambient music. Much more structured than Eno's early experiments in the style, these 15 brief pieces are surprisingly varied, from oddly rhythmic exercises to tranquil piano meditations. The few vocals, mostly by Turner, are almost swallowed up by the music, not only to hide their essential non-female qualities, but also as a stylistic choice that fits the mysterious, hard-to-grasp nature of the album. Silence and Wisdom is highly recommended, not just to Simon Fisher Turner fans, but to anyone fond of this style of ambient pop.