Penelope Trappes

Esoteric soundscaper Penelope Trappes embraces an elemental approach to production. Danny Turner discusses the techniques behind new EP, Eel Drip

Australian-born Penelope Trappes began her musical career in a Brisbane-based indie band before relocating to New York and developing experimental electronic projects Locke and Priscilla Sharp. In 2008, she teamed up with partner Stephen Hindman to create the electronic duo The Golden Filter and a decade later released her debut solo album Penelope One, which garnered praise for its heavily layered, dystopian sound.

Trappes signed to the Houndstooth label the following year for the release of her critically acclaimed Penelope Two, accompanying her largely percussion-less approach with more gothic introspection. With Penelope Three set to complete the trilogy next spring, Trappes first treats us to Eel Drip – a four-track EP that protracts her audacious production aesthetic based on heavily reverbed found sounds, acoustic instruments and vocals.

Being near or in water seems to be a prominent theme of your music and visuals 

“I’m definitely all-embracing of the natural elements in general. On an elemental and emotional level, I feel water symbolises the emotions and is a way to access the dark and the light. There may be a subconscious influence on the sounds I choose, but they also come from field recordings and meditation techniques that I use to open up creativity. Intuition plays heavily into what I do. If most artists are honest, that’s where they find their perspective.”

What themes are you typically writing about on the new EP, Eel Drip?

“The songs and visuals were staggered. Thematically, I do tend to veer into the darker, gothic side of life, but post-Covid I feel the tracks came into fruition because they started to highlight our modern anxiety and mental health issues arising from that. In the video where I’m in the bath and the water’s dripping over me, I was freezing because the water wouldn’t run warm [laughs], but the tenseness and feeling of being frozen in a place and time ties back into the whole concept. Lyrically, the song is based on a Celtic pagan goddess called Morrigan and the foreboding stampede of animals… the wolf that scares and the eel that trips, which sounds like drips. I got right into that.”