The press release describes Marina Rosenfeld as a ‘composer and conceptualist’, and ‘P.A. / Hard Love’ is every bit as hard to pin down as those tags may suggest. Her projects are as much performance art as musical, and this studio-based realisation of some of her explorations between 2009 and 2011 is certainly not standard musical fare. In fact,it’s hard to say precisely what it is, and with the input of cello work from Okkyung Lee and vocals – recorded in Kingston, Jamaica – by Annette Henry (aka Warrior Queen), the album pushes in myriad directions and creates many shades of atmosphere.
A cacophony of voices rises on the first of the six tracks, ‘New York / It’s All About..’ and immediately unsettles the listener. As the album progresses, the tension builds: quiet drones and hums hover in a barely-there ambience. A heavily delayed vocal half sings, half speaks… narratives distant and dislocated, fractured and fragmented. It’s hard to follow, the dream-like qualities rapidly becoming unsettling, uncanny, even nightmarish, a lost soul wandering dispossessed through ominous lingering notes that resonate on the peripheries of the subconscious. Fear chords permeate the psyche… ‘P.A / Hard Love’ is quietly creepy, and maintains the discomfiting atmosphere throughout. It’s good, but I’d be reluctant to describe it as an enjoyable listen.
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Marina Rosenfeld Online
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