URBAN EDEN – BUILDING GARDENS FROM CONCRETE
Urban Eden is Liz Helman and Dominic Hemy, who both share their love of drones and ‘twisting soundscapes’.
Hemy primarily uses his guitars and theremins to create soundscapes; while Helman creates immersive layers of textural drones from field recordings. Her photographs in the accompanying booklet explore the way concrete cityscapes and rampant gardens contradict or complement each other. Can you build a garden from concrete? Or does concrete itself builds gardens when it is left alone for long enough?
The four ‘Projects’ on this album match perfectly with the photography. The dronescapes are quite overwhelming at first, but once you discover the details you also discover the beauty in these sounds. Building Gardens From Concrete proves that beauty can be found depending on the way you look. Or the way you listen.
LAUREN DOSS – VOICES
Conceptually, Voices is about the opposite of Building Gardens From Concrete. And yet, there is a resemblance too: both are dealing with the way you interact with sound.
On her first full-length album, Lauren Doss aims “to capture the kinesthetic energy developed during dancing: music for the purpose of movement.”
The tracks started out as a set of experiments, which began as solely looped vocal improvisations that she recorded in everyday sessions.
Some of the tracks are presented untouched, as they were recorded, others “have been developed into more instrumental compositions while still retaining their improvised feel and emotional connection.”
Doss‘s main inspirational sources are Liz Fraser, Meredith Monk and Laurie Anderson, but also the (Dalcroze) Eurythmics philosophy which teaches concepts of rhythm, structure, and musical expression using movement.
As expected from the title, there’s only sparse use of electronic accompaniment: Lauren‘s voice is the main instrument, exploring many different moods. The spontaneity and directness of these tracks resulted in a fresh, powerful and compelling album.