Sofia Says

Gaël Segalen ‎– Sofia Says LP

With the sounds of "L' Ange Le Sage" still echoing in the back of my mind and its 'danceable field recordings' (as Gaël Segalen describes it) did I receive my copy of "Sofia Says" cassette (originally issued on tape by Coherent States and a few months ago a vinyl version was issued as a three label split (Sofia, Erratum, Coherent States) sometime ago. Being in a stack of 'stuff-to-listen-to' I listened to it in a hurry and shelved it on the 'to-listen-properly-when-time-whenever-is-found' stack but in between the vinyl version of it arrived and while was trying to find to listen properly to the tape I caught myself this very weekend spending almost an entire day listening to this stunning beauty.

As is nothing but a well constructed obscure soundscape which brings in mind industrialish nightmares, difficult 'ambient' (call it so or whatever) fields, narrated in such a way that as sounds come and go in the foreground and the background of the work(s) don't let the listener's attention unattended of this flabbergasting audio web. On the contrary as this grim audio navigation flows you are captured in an environment that brings more in mind a soundtrack (allow me to say) that starts with the industrial sounds of "Like Warehouse" and as it evolves gets you to a slightly different mood of its second side (well, if streaming you will get this feeling either way) and the amazing "I'll see you again" a piece whose throbbing background pulses and the noisy foreground sounds brought a vague memory of  the more 'psychedelic' atmosphere of "L'Ange Le Sage" all of a sudden, but whose evolution gets you to more frenetic dimensions, making it overall one of my favest releases for 2019.

If you are looking for truly adventurous, demanding and difficult music that on one hand has a touch of the past as reminds 'classic' industrial, obscure ambient paths (e.g. lovers of the early drone records era will fall in love with this one) but on the other breathes a new freshness to it then without second thoughts go and dig this gem!

coherent states

erratum

Gaël Segalen