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Loula Yorke confirms the presence ever around us of an unseen magic. The soft grooving and able pulsing of Hydrology (41:48) rewards listeners seeking a more cerebral vitality from their EM consumption. One does not need an engineering degree to know what is going on with this release, or to find striking moments among its six uniformly beautiful realizations. Along several streams of creative thought the mood and energy wanders high and low - passing easily through to the spacious minds in the attentive audience. From synthetic and urgent to harmonious and shapely, in shades of swirling possibility Hydrology provides a space for us to feel something novel, sonic and animating. As the motor motion of cycling sequencer settings spin to the spirit of discovery, kinetic confidence builds and climbs along powered scales of echoing notes. In this modular synth realm, oscillators buzz and hum low in the quiet current serving their volume, as heat treated circuits glow in ascent. This album is easy to admire, and just as easy to enjoy, which makes it rather difficult to forget. We find in this engaging display of talent an opportunity for Yorke to reveal brilliance. However, it remains to be seen if any new kinds of greatness will be possible for musicians in the age of automation ahead. An emissary of some future we can hardly glimpse Yorke sends her sounds and songs out into the unknowable time yet to come - her music rising as high as our hearts.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 20 November 2025 |
