Ingrid

On her previous solo recordings, Klara Lewis constructed haunting, quasi-rhythmic pieces from found sounds, detached voices, and loads of effects. Ingrid is a 20-minute composition focusing on a single sound source, but it might be her most powerful, affecting work yet. It begins with a gently flowing passage of cello playing, which gets caught in a possibly reversed, oddly lyrical-sounding loop after about a minute. Its one of those perfect, beautiful loops that could go on for hours and would sound soothing rather than annoying, yet its still melancholy and fearsome. All of these feelings are somehow amplified together as the loop progresses, becoming deeper and rounder as more effects are applied. There are more curves and more contrasts as the waves keep building higher, and as it grows more menacing, it progressively hits closer to home. By the 15-minute mark, theres so much in-the-red distortion that the loop has the force of a steamroller, and the effect is simply devastating. The distortion gradually recedes during the final minutes of the piece, but it retains an unearthly glow around the edges, and the general effect is that things can never go back to the way they were at the beginning. Thoroughly transformative. ~ Paul Simpson