Tesseract
Phonometrograph, 2023
8/10
The violinist Meredith Bates has cemented herself as a staple in the Vancouver music scene in both collaborative and solo situations, and these 6 powerful and diverse songs certainly continue her pace of unclassifiable sounds
“Disturbance” begins the listen with a mysterious droning that uses the climate in unorthodox ways that emit waves of ominous fuzz before segueing into a dreamy beauty, and “Constellation” follows with a bare but impactful thumping that flows into the intimate strings.
“Debris” exits the first disc with a distinct buzzing that carries a cinematic quality which retreats to minimal and graceful violin, while the back half leads with the 46 minutes of the title track, which presents a mesmerizing ambience.
“Continuum” exits the listen, and is rooted in electronics with plenty of glitches, beeps and video game-esque noises that are uniquely unpredictable.
Bates manipulates voice, found objects, electronics and, of course violin, for this darkly textured and highly inventive listen that meshes orchestral, electroacoustic and experimental ideas like few others can.
Travels well with: Stranger Still- The Songs Which Are; Joseph Petric- Seen