Lena - Extended Gestures for Cello (ltd. cdr)
CD release announcement from Hypnos Recordings
Artist: Lena
Title: Extended Gestures for Cello
Hypnos Secret Sounds
hss08, limited cdr edition of 300
2007. This is the recording debut of a female multi-instrumentalist new to the ambient & experimental music scenes.
Previewed on Alchemy of Fingers and Dark, a budget-priced single, this full-length album
Extended Gestures For Cello features 10 tracks of beautiful-yet-edgy solo cello ambience.
As indicated by the album's title, these recordings are entirely made up of solo cello, performed live in studio by Lena, with electronic
treatments and production by Hypnos founder and ambient experimentalist M. Griffin. The resultant sound is somewhere between
recognizably cello-like traditional playing, and an edgier, more atmospheric, and more challenging tone. Extended Gestures For
Cello plays at the fringes of deep drone minimalism, delves into electronically processed and multi-layered experimentalism, and
yet will appeal to those fans of ambient sounds based on traditional musicality and instrumentation. At times, Lena's work sounds like
chamber music in deep fog, and at others like an overheard argument between aliens. It is is uncompromising from start to finish.
Track listing with MP3 sample clips:
01 Pretty Sixteen - MP3 clip
02 Alchemy of Fingers and Dark - MP3 clip
03 Crowdmurmurs, Peopletalk - MP3 clip
04 Workings of Silver Fortunetelling Machines - MP3 clip
05 Analysis of Tapes From a Haunting - MP3 clip
06 Interlude in Bright Light, Part 1 - MP3 clip
07 Interlude in Bright Light, Part 2 - MP3 clip
08 A Little Less Than Nothing - MP3 clip
09 Alternating Views of a Single Subject - MP3 clip
10 Meeting By the Cliff as Dark Turns to Light - MP3 clip
Available for purchase on the Hypnos Online Store
here.
Reviews
"Some great new albums from Hypnos this month. I'm so glad to see them releasing wonderful ambient music again.... But the big hit is the new album from Lena, a talented cellist and the new wife of Hypnos founder Mike Griffin. Her album is cello treated with electronics. Very deep and dark. It really explores the depths of the cello."--Scott Raymond, WVKR radio
.