You could get lost out here…
Her song, as soft as skin, is also unfathomable. The depths to which she dives can only be imagined. Her sound is that of infinity. The rose-tinted vocal is the song’s soft centre, sweetly entangled in the perfume of warm delay. The aforementioned depth comes from the infinite amount of reverb, and the half-buried melodies shine dimly through the vocal because of it. In the depths, the two lines – the sung peach of a vocal and the entombed melody – become one and the same.
Her skin-swept vocals wisp over reverberating guitar chords. Lost in the murk, the harmony is a thick band of cloying, impenetrable fog that constantly swirls around the soothing vocal. It may be veiled in a low, ground-level fog, but the cloud of reverb is transparent enough to see through to the magnolia petals that lie on the other side. It’s a silk-fine covering that, with the swish of a hand, can quickly vanish. And when it does evaporate, the silence leaves you to wonder if the murky tones were really there in the first place.
Turkish musician Ekin Uzeltuzenci’s vocals whisper to you from far away. Her music is, unsurprisingly, influenced by Liz Harris’ Grouper, and while there are obvious similarities and comparisons to be made, Ekin Fil’s reverb-heavy conjuring is one of her own making.
You may need to tether yourself to her voice; her sung vocal is the lighthouse calling through the fog. The rope tugs gently as we walk cautiously along the boardwalk of drone. Her guitar loses most of its definition as it is played, but the timbre is still revealing as to the instrument’s origin. Dreamier than Grouper, Üzeltüzenci’s music is a fragile cobweb that hangs in the face of the cosmos; her music is less concerned with the supernatural mysticism of the universe, but still curious enough to flirt with the ethereal, spiritual possibility. Her finely curved tones and feathery whispers bloom outwards in a beautiful display; peacock tails of peach and cherry blossom.
It is still a mystical world, but it is softer than most. There is no indication that the supernatural will, without warning, take hold, but the strange intervals create something unusual to say the least, softened by romance. Like a candle that has melted down to the wax, her music is mesmerising in its slow-burning dance.
Delayed melodies loop as if lost in the dark, temporarily unable to find their way back home, but full of trust nonetheless. ‘Father’ echoes through the darker caverns, rebounding the consuming sound of the notes off the wall until it comes right back. The squeak of her fingers, changing position on the fretboard, becomes an endless, silver cloud of sound, kicking up a powdered puff of delay as it slides against the melody. Her cry rotates around another vocal, just as indistinctly, but it is a subtle addition to a well-rounded, hazy horizon. She isn’t afraid to further experiment with her blunted wall of sound.
‘May’ oozes with emotion, pouring out her whispered vocal onto muddy chocolate melodies. Her vocal tugs against the melody, creating casual friction as though it were the thick strand of rope tied to the waist. ‘Forever’ the music lasts, the music of centuries past, present and future. Time has no constraint in this place; you could get lost out here.
Her song is a soft promise that is often lost in the dissonant cacophony of urban life.
There is a twinkling melody – the only real distinct flourish – before her final incantation is lost in the vapour.