CD Review | Problematica (People Places Records, 2024)

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Problematica
India Gailey, cello and vocals; various composers
People Places Records, 2024

To summarize the music of an artist who flaunts its incomprehensible nature is to undo the music’s experiential power. It’s worth listening to India Gailey’s latest release, Problematica, before reading further.

This experience truly cannot be categorized—Gailey suggests as much through the album title, which is the scientific term for a species that eludes categorization. She has commissioned seven virtuosic musicians to compose various experimental works, in a bid to display her flexibility as both cellist and singer.

Sarah Rossy’s I long forgoes an identifiable melody in favour of scene-setting cello, allowing Gailey to morph her raw, honest vocals into something unsettlingly beautiful. Gailey then does a 180 with Nicole Lizée’s Grotesquerie, in which several voices are layered over instruments which they seem to be mimicking. Buzzing lips and cello trills; a whispered sh-sh-sh ha rhythm and shakers; aggressive vocal chants and reverberating cello. True to Lizée’s style of playing with electronic glitches in music, voices are occasionally reversed or pitch shifted, resulting in a track that pushes the boundaries of audio mixing. Universal Veil, made by Icelandic-Canadian composer Fjóla Evans, offers an evolving atmospheric soundscape, rendered entirely with string instruments.

Each work captures the cellist’s unpredictable essence and contributes to a cohesive theme, all while staying true to the commissioned artists’ existing repertoire. Nothing could have been a better followup to Gailey’s 2022 album, to you through.

Playlist

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