November 18, 2019

  • Electroacoustic Fragrances

     

    Electric Scent: The Music of Sophya Polevaya
    Sophya Polevaya, performer.
    Ravello Records 8024
    Total Time:  39:04
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Sophya Polevaya is a British composer and artist noted for her experiemental works and electroacoustic music.  Her pieces combine electronics, found objects and theatrical components.  The present album, Electric Scents, is a musical imaging of the fragrance of certain flowers.  A variety of musical cells were recorded in advance to form the basis of the material that Polevaya then manipulates to create a variety of images and sounds for this debut album.  The music uses a variety of musical sounds from harpsichord to low pitched bell sounds often with a saxophone idea woven through these textures.  The found objects also add their distinct color to the sounds created here in this experimental musical collage.  Each brief track challenges listeners with perceptions of the timbres of specific instruments as the different ideas.  Often a single instrument will serve as the linear idea that the other rhythmic and sound components respond to.  While the music tends to focus on the more extremes, there are some quite stunning melodic threads that pop out from time to time.  But, the journey here can be a rough one for those expecting delicate, tonal pictures.  These are often visceral deconstructions of sound that challenge the listener as this concept album progresses.  Multiple listenings should begin to pull out the way specific motives are reiterated and manipulated to provide further exploration of the way Polevaya constructs these sound experiments.  The saxophone lines are often stunning with the harpsichord adding an almost Gothic off-kilter flavor.  It is a journey of reorientation and disorientation that the listener undertakes in this excellently recorded and imaged release.