Gintė Preisaitė: Instruments of Forgetting and the Singing Bone review – atmospheric, unsettling ambience | Music

Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory has become associated with a specific gauzy, esoteric sound, which draws on, and reshapes, classical instrumentation and pop songwriting. Think ML Buch, Astrid Sonne and Erika de Casier, all of whom have graduated from the institution since 2019. Following in their footsteps is Lithuanian musician Gintė Preisaitė, who works with piano, voice and electronics to create atmospheric, unsettling ambient compositions.

Instruments of Forgetting and the Singing Bone, Preisaitė’s first solo release under her own name, draws on her background in improvisational techniques and composing for large ensembles. With additional instrumentation from a cluster of collaborators – strings, woodwind, tape – she presents eight tracks that build in intensity through her collage-like assembling of strange sounds and effects.

It starts subtly with opening track Vigilance, where sustained drones are gradually peppered with birdsong and electronic glitches. Preisaitė’s vocals, which appear in the second half, are at first stark and bright, before they are also chopped up and layered in a dreamy haze. On tracks such as Summary Saint Mary and I Constantly, disparate instruments creak and clatter around dense blurts of noise. The experimental approach comes to a head on Nippon Dreams, an arhythmic concoction of percussion, electronics and found sounds, presumably from a trip to Japan: a pool cue hitting the ball, running water, muted street chatter.

Among the abstraction are shades of left-field pop and modern classical. In standout track Deepen, a gorgeous, low-slung refrain emerges from the eerie dissonance, complete with moody vocals and guitars that recall Smerz (one of whom also went to RMC) and Blonde Redhead. Aéroport features a blown-out breakbeat, while penultimate track Day places Preisaitė’s piano centre stage for the first time. These moments demonstrate her proficiency as a songwriter as well as an experimentalist.

Also out this month

Bayal is the third collaborative album from Iranian experimental musicians Tegh and Adel Poursamadi (Injazero Records). Taking inspiration from the fictional village in Gholam-Hossein Sa’edi’s 1964 collection of short stories, the pair use brooding synths and whining strings to conjure up something suitably elegiac, with occasional storms of noise. On their debut album Sinking, Paris-born DJ and producer Beatrice M presents a slick and deeply atmospheric journey through UK bass, dubstep and dub techno (Tectonic Recordings). There are plenty of dancefloor-minded tracks here, but the real highlights are the dense and hypnotic moments which bookend the record. Made up of a rotating cast of 37 musicians, Naarm-based group Bodies of Divine Infinite and Eternal Spirit push boundaries through their large-scale, semi-improvised live performances. Their latest project, disaster 1, is their most ambitious yet: a 46-minute, one-take recording of post-punk and post-rock-style instrumentation, complete with swirling feedback, chanting and spoken word (Absorb).