Eternal Recurrence

Approfondimenti

Angel Deradoorian's second Anticon release is vastly different from her first, as well as anything she's recorded with other artists, including Dirty Projectors and Avey Tare. While 2015's The Expanding Flower Planet mixed billowing vocal harmonies with loping, hypnotic rhythms, alternately recalling Krautrock, new wave, and exotica, Eternal Recurrence does away with drums entirely, focusing on Deradoorian's ethereal vocals and soft, enveloping keyboard drones, with the occasional presence of flutes, bells, and other acoustic instruments. The songs are spiritual as well as personal, meditating on the vitality of love during the song's opener, where Deradoorian states that "Love's the only thing keeping me alive." The lengthy "Return-Transcend" finds her in full flight, with her mantra-like vocals floating over an entrancing drone and a ghostly chorus of multi-tracked vocals. The lovely ambient pop tune "Nia in the Dark" was written for Deradoorian's friend Nia Andrews, assuring her that she is making a difference in people's lives, even if she sometimes feels invisible or unappreciated. "Mirrorman," while still musically soft and tranquil, is lyrically a bit more striking, ruminating on the destruction of one's ego: "My mirror man can't die until he kills himself." The release clocks in at less than half an hour, but its meditative nature transcends time, and it feels like a complete work rather than a minor batch of non-album tracks. Eternal Recurrence is a fine, thoughtful piece of ambient drone-folk that is as challenging as it is assuring.

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