-Io

悲しみは、やがて風景になる。
シカゴ地下シーンで異彩を放ち続ける才媛Circuit des Yeux 最新アルバム発売決定。

〈Thrill Jockey〉や〈Drag City〉にカタログを残し、Jackie Lynn名義でも知られるシカゴ・エクスペリメンタル・フォークの才媛Haley Fohrによるメイン・プロジェクトCircuit des Yeuxが〈Matador〉移籍第一弾作品にして通算6枚目となる最新アルバムをリリース!
オリジナル作品としては4年ぶりとなった本作は、本人プロデュースのもと2020年秋に数々の伝説的な作品を生んできたSteve AlbiniのスタジオElectrical AudioにてUSサイケ～ドローンの雄Cooper Crainによってテープ録音され、BjorkやHolly Herndon仕事でお馴染みのMarta Salogniがミキシング・エンジニアを務めた。
本作は自身の病と向き合いながらパンデミックの最中に「すべてが常に終わる」という喪失と悲哀をテーマに、シカゴのジャズ、クラシック、実験音楽のシーンで活躍する13人の著名なミュージシャンたちによる弦楽器、金管楽器、管楽器のアンサンブルの中で、Circuit des Yeuxの4オクターブにも渡るゴシックな歌声がこれまで以上に唯一無二の異世界を描いた先行シングル「Dogma」を含む全10曲を収録。
まるでリスナーをブラックホールの中に吸い込むような、あるいは壊れゆく世界の中に一筋の光が差し込むような、広大で孤独に寄り添うエクスペリメンタル・フォークの極北がここに完成した。

Haley Fohr has interpreted profound revelations and personal visions through her fascinating body of work as Circuit des Yeux, particularly on standout full-lengths like Overdue, In Plain Speech, and Reaching for Indigo. The projects sixth album, -io, moves beyond the ethereal indie folk and noise rock of her past releases, this time featuring expansive orchestral instrumentation. Fohr primarily wrote the songs on piano and organ rather than guitar, and she meticulously arranged and produced them on her home computer, recording in COVID-restricted sessions with six additional musicians at a time. The album came to fruition after an extended period of grieving and deep depression following the loss of a close friend, and the lyrics reflect the sensations of fading light, disbelief, and displacement. Vanishing is a propulsive, string-laden memorial in which Fohr says goodbye to numerous specific moments and details, dramatically intoning expressions of loss: fading, falling, melting, sinking. Dogma has a more hypnotic, motorik rhythm and glittering synth sequences, rather than the string-heavy arrangements of the rest of the album, and the lyrics seem to refer to coping and finding ones footing. The Chase is more erratic, with a nervously puttering kick drum and whispered introductory vocals, as well as angular guitar patterns giving way to whirring glitches. Neutron Star is a dramatic, Spaghetti Western-esque ballad that poetically describes Fohrs friends ascension to the cosmos. The sparse, piano-based Stranger recalls Fohrs most haunting early work, but with clearer production, as shes driven to unleash harrowing howls after a chance encounter on the street conjures thoughts of what could have been. Fohrs lyrics draw from personal experiences as well as scientific phenomena, and she elevates them with her dynamic, sometimes earth-shaking arrangements. ~ Paul Simpson