Bow & Brush
Red Shift, 2024
8/10
The multi-instrumentalist Stefan Smulovitz pens a complex and unique listen, where classical, experimental and abstract ideas are present.
“The Pier” starts the listen with much warmth, where graceful strings are met with a charming beauty, and “Perseids” follows with a glitchy electronic presence amid the aching, orchestral strings.
Further along, the droning “Maple Seed Pods” builds into a dense, cinematic presence of mystery, while “Sea Lion Swims” makes for blurry, tense exploration into waves of atmospheric manipulation.
Close to the end, “Turtle Listening” is harmonically bright and tonally inviting via the cultured delivery, and “Pier Repise” exits with the sounds of water and graceful violin that tugs on the heartstrings.
Smulovitz plays viola, violin, bass, dvina, enner, lyra, noon, perkons, waterphone and gongs, and the very atypical textures embrace distortion, haunting moments, and expressionism in a way that few others could replicate.
Travels well with: Nova Pon- Symphonies Of Mother And Child; India Gailey- Problematica