
Great Doubt, the new record by Danish experimental composer Astrid Sonne, carefully applies extended techniques for viola and detuned pianos upon hard, synthesized beats and brass sections, which are then warped into a surreal, narcotic kind of R&B. Her flat and clear-cut vocal delivery highlights the tension building within and behind it, among a digital flora of post-rock orchestration. It’s as if Tirzah played a Hype Williams track (or Mica Levi an Erika de Casier track), while the erratic melodic explorations and subdued vocal contractions remind us of yet other avant-pop luminaries with a classical background, like Julia Holter or, before her, Laurie Anderson. It’s disarming: just when the hazed out layers of noise over looped cells form a droning pattern only vaguely interrupted by irregular pizzicatos, just then, out of sudden, amidst the aggressive grind of an ironic preset pad, a sepulchral weave of flutes, and thickly compressed kicks, there breaks a sugar-coated sparkle of a voice. The celestial carpentry of expectation. | r moraes
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