Rose Keeler Schaffeler / Universal Language / Magic Hollow

Rose Keeler Schaffeler is probably best known by the alias Keel Her, which she assumed in 2012 to release smart collections of Sarah Records-like indie rock. 2019’s “With Kindness” saw Schaffeler move more toward electronica, while the single, “Surrender Rah”, a collaboration with producer Daniel O’Sullivan, is a brilliant hit / bit of post-punk dub. Last year O’Sullivan and Schaffeler contributed a set of voice-based pieces to the Standard Music Library, and their new album, “Universal Language” expands on these sounds and ideas. Inspired by her infant son’s first attempts at communication, Schaffeler created compositions centred around wordless, vocal arrangements. Here, angelic, ethereal, multi-tracked choirs sing sweetly, somewhere between hymn and lullaby. There’s a choral complexity fashioned from interwoven layers. Overlapping refrains and phrases. O’Sullivan’s accompaniment, of synthetic drones and tape manipulations, is totally sympathetic and largely unobtrusive. “Two…