Maya Shenfeld – In Free Fall

Thrill Jockey

Listening to In Free Fall, Maya Shenfeld‘s album of slow-moving and stately processions, it feels a little like visiting a gallery full of huge, abstract artwork or watching somebody gently unfurl a series of enormous flags. Everything unfolds at a pace that gives opportunity to be totally immersed in the evolution of each piece.

The single staccato blares of opener “Cataphora” ascend like smoke on a still day, the tones changing subtly as the smoke dissipates higher in the atmosphere and it takes on the feeling of breathing, its epic intensity allied to its sheer simplicity. The renewing of an electronic screen is rendered in sound on “Body, Electric” but juxtaposed with the emotive bliss if what could be a church organ. There is something about the sombre tones that is oddly moving and that sense of surprising emotional involvement is carried all the way through the album.

Each track paints a different scene with a contrasting sonic palette; the looming expanse of “Voyager” has a gradual emergence of tiny details, be it an unexpected echo or the swoop of an unknown, while “Mountain Larkspur” uses the Bethanien Youth Choir, whose voices float gravity-free, a melange of welcoming tones that feels like a portal to some chamber of eternal sunshine.

Frozen fronds of grass tinkle and wave in a light breeze on “Silver”, but are offset against the distortion of jet engine isolation which grows and grows as the piece progresses. It is this ability or willingness to marry disparate parts together to create and unexpected whole that makes this album so satisfying, and it feels so simple; yet the details, once you really drill down into it, draw the listener in. The solemn march of the monolithic tones in “Sadder Than Water” really does feel as if Maya is practising on a church organ, but has locked herself inside to really enable her to enter into each note. It is as if Maya is striving to break through some musical barrier that only she can hear, but is for the benefit of us all.

It is this dedication to pushing her ideas that makes the album so immersive; the final track allows the listener to follow the decay of the notes, such is the space and quality of the production. As they decay, so other little tones appear fleetingly before the drama of the next note engulfs. At points, In Free Fall feels like an experiment, but it is a supremely successful one that definitely demands repeated listening.

-Mr Olivetti-