Forest City

Album review

Even from its detached, lonesome opening, Maria Chiara Argirò's latest record, Forest City, exudes a hopeful imagination. Filled with sweeping electronic compositions, rich with melodic muscle, and marked by delicate atmospheric textures, Forest City captures the vivid dichotomy of sprawling urban cityscapes meeting the organic beating-hum of nature's cyclical beginnings and endings. Argirò is a prolific creative collaborator and live performer whose previous projects span a handful of solo releases, touring with post-punk rockers These New Puritans, a lush jazz hybrid record with guitarist Jamie Leeming (2020's Flow), and an ethereal collaboration with London jazz percussionist Riccardo Chiaberta (2021's "Mahi Mahi"). In Forest City, Argirò returns to her own. It's an excursion of her collective experiences liberated through the structureless sonic boundaries of electronica and jazz harmonics. On "Home," a nodding hum is enveloped through tweaked and chopped oscillating arpeggios. "Greenarp" finds Argirò's airy, atmospheric vocals over pillowy synthesizers, leaving the listener surrounded in a quaint solace of meditative relief. Club-minded "Bonsai" radiates as the album's centerpiece. Propulsive percussive patterns and sliced vocal hums canter underneath luscious cascading waves of opulent sonic bliss—each moment extending and teeming with organic energy. A singular muted horn pierces the silence at the pinnacle of this track, clearing room for a satisfying conclusion of dissipating ambient energy. With a brilliant kaleidoscopic fusion of jazz textures and spatially-bound electronica, Argirò elevates and transports the listener to a place eerily similar, but profoundly distinct, from our world. Forest City's curious spirit bubbles with a sanguine glow and invites the listener to dive deep into its glistening sonic sea. © William Card/Qobuz