JORJA CHALMERS “Midnight Train” Ivory LP

“…Won’t You Take The Midnight Train….”

Produced By Jorja Chalmers
Mixed By Dean Hurley
Executive Produced By Johnny Jewel
Mastered By Mike Bozzi At Bernie Grundman Mastering
Vinyl Cut By Bernie Grundman In Hollywood
Artwork Designed By Johnny Jewel
Photography By Caitlin Mogridge

Jorja Chalmers enjoys a quiet life. The Australian born mother of two lives in Margate, the Kent coastal town that is turning into something of a cultural hub. Yet there’s another, shadow version of Jorja Chalmers, one that resides in a liminal realm; a saxophonist & composer, a brooding, vampiric, twilight soul who yearns for some sense of aesthetic transformation.

New album ‘Midnight Train’ comes close to severing the two. Constructed during the long winter lockdown, Jorja would put her kids to bed before closing the door in the spare room, building lengthy, undulating passages of cinematic terror, patching together European art-pop glamour with outsider electronics. It’s composed, intense, & challenging – but it’s also utterly exhilarating.

“I feel incredibly proud of this album,” she says. “It feels like a life’s work squeezed into one space. It feels like I’m saying something.”

It’s not been a straight-forward path. Burned out following years of classical studies in her native Sydney, Jorja travelled half-way round the world looking for an escape. Settling for some ad hoc office jobs in London, she started kicking around in b&s, playing saxophone for a friend’s new wave project. Someone from Bryan Ferry’s team spotted her at some flea-bit bar, & was infatuated – soon Jorja started touring the world with Roxy Music.

“It can’t not rub off on you,” she beams. “They were so brave in their songwriting, & the way that they weren’t so tied to conventional form; just really playful & adventurous. I love the way that they write, & I love the way that they’ll have nice, long instrumental parts. & it’s OK to do that – it feels as though that’s a little bit lost in today’s music.”

Jorja’s 2019 debut album ‘Human Again’ was sketched in hotel rooms across Europe & North America, ideas punched out on down-time between shows. Open ended & lucid, its formless, dreamy atmospherics touched freely on darker aspects of the psyche. This time round, however, things are a bit more defined. “A lot of those songs were one take jams, it was improvised. This is more refined,” Jorja insists. “It’s a natural progression, this second album. It feels more mature in that way.”

“It’s taken a little bit of time to refine my sound,” she adds. “But I feel like – especially with this album – that I’m saying exactly what I want to say.”

‘Midnight Train’ is a treasure trove of ideas. Indeed, it could well be the album Jorja had waited her entire life to make – aspects of minimalism sparked by a teenager who spent countless hours memorising Michael Nyman’s seminal film score for The Piano, set against cinematic electronics & swathes of huge, enveloping, classical dynamics.

“I want it to sound immersive, like it’s wrapping you in a blanket,” she says. Indeed, she cites Rachmaninoff’s epic work The Rock as a key touchstone on the new record. “It’s something that my parents used to blast out of their stereo when I was a kid. I heard it a million times. It’s strange to be hearing a song that is so dramatic when you’re that young. It’s a beautiful piece. It’s one of those things that leaves an imprint on you.”

Opening track ‘Bring Me Down’ leaves a huge imprint. Brooding electronics that uses its pointed melodies to unleash quasi-demonic fissures in the psyche, it hones in on the melodrama that is masked by the everyday. “It’s about the fragility of the perfect housewife,” Jorja explains. “It’s basically about a woman that’s trying to be everything, & is cracking psychologically. It’s got a very haunting melody. There’s something there that’s a little bit beautiful & disturbing about it.”

The accompanying video is a piece of performance art, an unsettling one-shot clip that shows a person on the edge. Imbued with the influence of David Lynch – Jorja’s debut album was mixed at his Asymmetrical studio complex, just off Mulholl& Drive in Los Angeles – it carries a character & tone of its own. It’s all theatre, however; just like Kate Bush – or Roxy Music, for that matter – Jorja Chalmer relishes in inhabiting a persona, one that may be entirely divorced from her own experiences. “There can be a healthy separation from using your creativity to make something that is almost like a duplicate of yourself, that you don’t necessarily associate with. If you make something dark, then it’s not necessarily your personality. It can be the opposite sometimes.”

“I have quite a nice life,” she smiles. “I’m a pretty sane & stable person. I’m not experiencing what’s going on throughout the album, it’s all stories. It’s all made up. & that’s nice for me as well, because I get to explore something darker.”

At times, ‘Midnight Train’ gets very dark indeed. ‘Rabbit In The Headlights’ is a squirming piece of jet-black avant-pop, while ‘Boadicea’ is draped in the blood of the ancient British warrior queen. ‘The Wolves Of The Orangery’ was sculpted after a Roxy Music show in the Palace of Versailles, & it’s haunted by the oppression meted out to the servants, & the bloody revenge exhibited on the French regal classes. There’s light in those murky depths, however; take her brooding version of The Doors’ classic ‘Riders On The Storm’ – a blood-thirsty slice of dystopian electronics, it doubles as a salute to her father, who built himself colossal speakers to both entertain his daughter & terrify his neighbours.

A finessed, contoured vision of Jorja Chalmers’ undaunted creativity, ‘Midnight Train’ bristles with ideas. Breathy saxophone undulates on ‘Nightingale’, her homage to Yellow Magic Orchestra founder Haroumi Hosono, while mournful closer ‘Underwater Blood’ echoes the intensity of Goblin’s work on the Suspiria score, or even John Carpenter’s cinematic endeavours. “I grew up watching lots of movies. I was obsessed with the Terminator soundtrack. I remember hearing that for the first time, & just knowing my tastes were going to be changed forever.”

With Johnny Jewel returning as Executive Producer & Dean Hurley – David Lynch’s music engineer – h&ling the final mix, ‘Midnight Train’ feels concise, & sharpened. Cannibalising her influences, Jorja Chalmers has been able to pursue her creative appetites to their most extreme. Yet even at its most challenging, her new album revels in the sheer joy of creation. “Making this album was really freeing,” she explains. “I loved writing this album. I always write in the same way, but I think that lockdown provided me with lesser distractions. Writing is such a personal thing for me – being in your little cave, & creating. That’s the beautiful moment for me.”

A solitary creation, a lockdown triumph, ‘Midnight Train’ is the moment Jorja Chalmers truly achieves transcendence.

Bring Me Down (2:59)
I’ll Be Waiting (4:10)
Rabbit In The Headlights (3:05)
Boadicea (1:20)
Love Me Tonight (2:25)
Nightingale (2:43)
Riders On The Storm (3:27)
Rhapsody (5:32)
The Poet (1:58)
The Wolves Of The Orangery (3:22)
On Such A Clear Day (2:10)
Midnight Train (3:44)
Underwater Blood (3:26)

Total Running Time  (40:26)