Keeley Moss is passionate about music and true crime and her latest long player `Beautiful Mysterious` brings both together in a concept album dedicated to telling the story of Inga Maria Hauser, a teenager and artist who was abducted and brutally murdered while inter-railing in 1988. Inga was an eighteen-year-old artist and musician who set off from her home in Munich with the intention of taking in as much of the British Isles as her brief trip and limited budget could afford her. On April 6 she was abducted after a ferry crossing from Scotland to Northern Ireland and brutally murdered in Ballypatrick Forest. The perpetrators have never been brought to justice despite many promising leads.
The album falls into two elements with Part One: The Beauty and Part Two: The Mystery.
The Beauty opens with `A Doorway To Another World` where we enter the dreamy adolescent world of this ordinary young girl and imagine her frustrations and dreams shared over a delicate and gentle dream pop background. The anticipation of the journey from her hometown to the exciting eager of arrival in the UK and new beginnings plays over a melodic eighties-tinged synth undertone on `Trans-Europe 18`.
`Inga Maria’s Dream` imagines the joy and fascination of a different country and culture on this reflective slow burn. The fairly ethereal `Days In a Daze` exudes the joy and love of all that`s being experienced and discovered on this adventure.
`Last Words` is a faster paced offering with a slight apprehension of where this traveller will find lodging, tinged with the eagerness to get to Ireland which was to be a highlight of the expedition.
Part Two: The Mystery begins with `Galloway Princess` which musically gives the impression of a journey as the lyrics paint a picture of the ferry carrying passengers from Stranraer, Scotland to Larne, Northern Ireland. I thought `Inga Hauser` felt quite philosophical and introspective musically with lyrics that imagine the arrival and abduction of this young lady and how she fought her abductors.
`Forever Froze` has a twinkling Stones Roses like texture as it appears to speculate on the final moments of this young life. There`s a meditative quite absorbed feel to `Scratches On Your Face` as it hints at the final moments as this teenager’s life was extinguished and how the perpetrators will have to account for their brutal actions one day.
`Waves Of 1988` is a pensive contemplation, journal, or chronicle of the final journey of this teenager though the UK with music that mirrors the sadness of a short life ended tragically. The final track `You Were The Beauty` is a kind of tribute or eulogy to Inga Maria Hauser which reprises with a heartbreaking and brief snippet of Inga singing the hymn `Amazing Grace`.
`Beautiful Mysterious` certainly has a mysterious beauty about it and although the subject matter is heartbreaking, this album has been put together with a lot of love, reverence, and respect. It`s dreadful to think that twice the time that this young lady spent on this earth has passed since her death with nobody having as yet, being prosecuted.
`Beautiful Mysterious` is a permanent homage to a young life tragically cut short.
Rating 8.5/10
