Stena

神秘的な美しさを放つドローンノイズ

これまでTROUBLE IN MINDやDIGITALISなどから作品をリリースしてきたWHITNEY JOHNSON a.k.a. MATCHESSが両名義にてDRAG CITYより2タイトル同時リリース! 2タイトル共にWHITNEYがヘルマプロディートスの信仰を研究し、キプロスとギリシャに訪れた際にインスピレーションを得たもの。旅の途中初めて読んだメアリー・シェリー『フランケンシュタイン』に感銘を受け、インディアナ州ミラー・ビーチ、2022年の冬にスウェーデンの片田舎の納屋でレコーディングされたものが本作『STENA』。

不穏なドローン・ノイズと微かに聞こえる様な神秘性溢れるヴォーカル・メロディーがMATCHESSでしか得られない独特の心地良さをもたらしてくれます。同時リリースの『HAV』と共に2024年エクスペリメンタル・ミュージック・シーンにおける重要作品の一つになること間違いナシの傑作です!

Whitney Johnson started researching the Cult of Hermaphroditus in 2021, and traveled to Cyprus and Greece in order to visit sites and collect materials. She also read Mary Shelleys Frankenstein for the first time, and felt a deep connection with the story. Attracted to ideas of duality, she worked on two separate but interrelated albums inspired by these experiences. While the Hav LP is the first work issued under Johnsons own name, the Stena cassette appears as a Matchess release. Recorded between Miller Beach, Indiana and rural Sweden, then finished while Johnson was an artist-in-residence at Inkonst in Malmo and at Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm, Stena incorporates field recordings from her research travels. Its also fuller and more detailed than the post-minimalist drone work Hav, even if its still often pared-down and subtle. Much like the previous Matchess album, Sonescent, there are parts where it sounds like rock or folk music is being played from a distance, through thick walls, or even underwater. Glowing organs, trudging steps, and unnerving bells and buzzes turn the album into a cinematic experience. The second half is particularly blanketed with noise and distortion effects, which plunge an already surreal recording into a nightmare realm. Final piece "DNA Repair" conceals intimately plucked strings and barely audible vocals beneath mesmerizing sine waves, eventually sweeping away like the tide. ~ Paul Simpson