19 Jun 2012 — Henning Lahmann
Escopolamina (in Spanish) or Scopolamine (in English) is a drug,
Wikipedia tells us, that has an intensely sedating, tranquilizing effect. In Colombia, so the story goes, it is frequently used to rob people on the streets, as it will temporarily eliminate the victim's free will. "Escopolamina", the second track on
Commotus, the sophomore full-length by Columbian native, Barcelona resident
Lucrecia Dalt (whose impressive musical interpretation of Werner Herzog's
Lektionen in Finsternis we recently featured), does have a soothing and slightly unsettling effect, as does the whole album, yet despite the thoroughly troubling cover artwork, it will most likely do no harm. Still, over the course of the LP's 40 minutes, Dalt conceives intricately constructed, carefully arranged soundscapes that appear gentle and pleasing on the surface, yet invariably imply some uncanny, surrealist subtext, a hidden meaning that taps into the unconscious. It is, in short, a marvelous, deeply entrancing effort.
Below, you may stream the whole album, which was accomplished with the help of Julia Holter (playing harmonium on "Silencio") and Luke Sutherland (contributing bass for "Batholith").
Commotus is out today on
HEM Berlin. Order it
over here.
Read more →
Escopolamina (in Spanish) or Scopolamine (in English) is a drug,
Wikipedia tells us, that has an intensely sedating, tranquilizing effect. In Colombia, so the story goes, it is frequently used to rob people on the streets, as it will temporarily eliminate the victim's free will. "Escopolamina", the second track on
Commotus, the sophomore full-length by Columbian native, Barcelona resident
Lucrecia Dalt (whose impressive musical interpretation of Werner Herzog's
Lektionen in Finsternis we recently featured), does have a soothing and slightly unsettling effect, as does the whole album, yet despite the thoroughly troubling cover artwork, it will most likely do no harm. Still, over the course of the LP's 40 minutes, Dalt conceives intricately constructed, carefully arranged soundscapes that appear gentle and pleasing on the surface, yet invariably imply some uncanny, surrealist subtext, a hidden meaning that taps into the unconscious. It is, in short, a marvelous, deeply entrancing effort.
Below, you may stream the whole album, which was accomplished with the help of Julia Holter (playing harmonium on "Silencio") and Luke Sutherland (contributing bass for "Batholith").
Commotus is out today on
HEM Berlin. Order it
over here.
Listen to a new, low-end focused track by Tokyo's Takafumi Noda aka 
Pretty rad selection (we think) for this week's Video Sunday, featuring new, we have to say, masterpieces for aural pleasures creates by the likes of