Hyunhye Seo, also referred to as Angela Seo, has been a member of inscrutable experimental-rock band Xiu Xiu since 2009, offering synths, piano, and vocals to flesh out their persistently beguiling, unsettling sound. On her debut solo report, Strands (Room40), Seo conjures discomfort in new methods, buying and selling in Xiu Xiu’s outré pop grotesqueries for 2 18-minute items, one of atmosphere and the opposite of solo piano. “Strands I” begins off surreptitiously, with a low, nondescript hum that quietly grows. The desolate environment at play within the monitor’s oscillating electronics provides off the fixed sense that we’re all by our lonesome, compelled to confront our inside demons. The textual content that accompanies the album bolsters this cryptic feeling: Seo describes strands of her hair turning up in all places she’s been, serving as disagreeable reminders of regrettable choices and previous selves. Moments of relative peace often come up because the monitor progresses, with gongs and different percussion creating foggy drones, however any serenity is short-lived; the tune’s serpentine stream ensures that no second of solace lasts lengthy. “Strands II,” the piano piece, is much more anxiousness inducing. Its ambulatory melodies really feel like they’re in fixed search of an ending, they usually’re shrouded in simply sufficient reverb to create a hazy, disorienting setting—a sense that’s intensified when piano notes coalesce right into a cloud of groggy clanging. Halfway via the monitor, Seo repeatedly faucets a single key and lets it fade into nothing. After a pause, she strikes into passages that make astute use of silence, the place the unfavourable area creates as a lot stress as her piano enjoying. The two items on Strands are two sides of the identical coin: Seo can seize the ominous with no matter instruments she employs. v
Hyunhye Seo of Xiu Xiu makes her cryptic solo debut with Strands | Music Review
