Croatian Amor’s Tender Melancholia Uplifts in ‘Isa’

Croatian Amor | Isa | Posh Isolation

Release Date: 25 January 2019

Written by Jenna Dreisenstock

Finding gentleness and conflict within the spaces between; a glowing landscape in melancholia with hand reaching toward the sky. Each sound simmers as a cold flame, a vulnerability in a delicate hope, a volatile inside comforted in a feathery embrace. With a sense of natural light streaming through in timbre, in collusion with an ethereal sense of the outside self; the coldness seeps in a shimmer nostalgia, known and unknown. To be delicate and hopeful in // out of the anxious, dark and experimental, yet touchingly tender narrative.

Croatian Amor, a project sculpted by Danish producer Loke Rahbek; returns with his newest album entitled ‘Isa’, singing a lyrical ambience in the circling birds of an electronic soundscape; released via Posh Isolation, an imprint created by Rahbek and Christian Staadgard. ‘Isa’, translating from the Muslim Arabic word for ‘Jesus’ is intimately layered with a sweetened melancholia.

Featuring artists such as Soho Rezanejad, Jonnine Standish of HTRK, Alto Aria and even the respective glimmering voices of Yves Tumor and Fredrikke Hoffmeier present, ‘Isa’ is a safety present in traversing one’s inner self (and the companionship that comes with the journey). It presents to us a difficult softness that is beautifully compassionate, an ambient relationship with the workings of cradling and piecing together sound, woven with the type of light that one watches stream through an open window as morning breaks.

“All angels meet again.”

Opening in a vibrato praise of auto-tune splendour, vocal sways like fluttering wings as ‘In Alarm Light’ cascades into light percussive claps and synth-swells. Featuring artist Soho Rezanejad, waves of electronic timbre breath in // breathe out and fall, a steady yet compassionate drive as a seascape is layered gracefully. The radical lightness that envelops as the track progresses, trembles with vocals and careful cuts, weaving comfort within a juxtaposition of words:

“Brutality

Makes us feel safe.”

An ocean of thoughtfully woven timbres weave within an ambient auto-tune prayer-and-cut as the symbiosis of the electronic sea fades into silence.

‘Point Reflex Blue’ greets us in light dilation, an ambience of sea-foam embracing the shore as a wave of percussive tik-tok; the vocal tide calm in accompaniment, sweetend metallic clicks and the shimmering reverb-drench and slender pitch-bends amongst waters. The presence of an engulfed, seldom echo, a heavy beat beneath the tranquil glitches and alien auto-tune vocal pushes a progression in tempo. Percussive rolls weave between a cyber seance break, uplifting melodies gliding in a honeyed dance.  

A reflective glance swirls in ‘Dark Cut’ opens up slightly more pronounced that the other tracks of the album with a steady beat in an echo of metallic timbre and percussion; the auto-tune cyber glitched vocals (featuring artist Jonnine Standish) layer amongst themselves in a rising, falling soundscape. The minimalist progression is steady and provides an introspective tone with studded details amongst the back and forth of natural // artificial vocals. The touch of alien timbre shimmers in space-like reverberation, peering within the carefully arranged lyrical cradle. A drifting spirit soothes composure as the track swims between various vocal auras and electronic experimentation.

The closing track of the album ‘In World Cell’ features spectral voices climbing and resting within one another, samples oddly comforting and unnerving all at once.

“In her iris there is a perfectly updated map of the city,

Including the entire tunnel system underground”

The cyber-extraterrestrial sets the tone as static, industrial-esque experimentation floats seamlessly into the co0l star-sparks of submerging ambience and non-linear synths; playing within the open spaces in possibility of stringing together timbres as an emotionally-charged atmosphere. The introduction of a striking beat progresses the track toward a sculpted, heartful overwhelm of intimacy and introspection.

In ‘Isa’, Rahbek creates a unique sense of hopeful, spiritual self-reflection; a feeling of being engulfed by a stingingly impassioned experimentation of sound. Seascapes of tenderness fill the tracks with a distinct vulnerability; a type of gentle anxiety that fills the lungs with crisp, dust-moats and morning light. It boasts a sadness that is faithful to an inner strength, with the ability of minimalist progression and the willingness to play with sound and samples offering a sanguine take on introspection and companionship. ‘Isa’ is a beautifully sculpted narrative in the aura of each track, the images of rather dark, yet elegant doves gliding wilfully toward the embrace of a burning sun.

Listen & Purchase Isa by Croatian Amor

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