blackleggingsonblackstairs

Split release by Piper Spray and Lena Tsibizova — two musicians whose sound can be described as bedroom electronics or low-fi ambient. Lena and Piper Spray are also members of the Air Krew collective along with their third bandmate Sergey Podluzhny, who is on mastering duties for this record. Following the first track’s title, the album begins with a nostalgic synthesizer melody which pours on the listener like rays of the midday sun, bringing forward recollections of a pleasant half-forgotten time. However, memory not only holds the serene and nostalgic — it can also evoke painful and anxious images or even mislead its carrier by synthesizing new details and meanings. The album seems to be transforming in a similar pattern. Arrhythmic beats, glitchy effects and faint voices — like spores of the unconsciousness that break through shallow sleep and fill the gaps in memory — gradually come forward, taking over the melodic element. By the second half of the record, the naive nostalgia disintegrates into distant echoes and the sound takes the form of a collage which almost sounds like magnetic tape experiments. Despite the difference in tone and techniques, the two tracks here are not antagonists. They complement each other, presenting memory mechanisms and the experience of acute reflection in different colors. Music — Piper Spray, Lena Tsibizova Mastering — Sergey Podluzhny Artwork — Lena Tsibizova Recorded in the wastelands of Kudrovo. Buy: https://radiosygma.bandcamp.com/album/piper-spray-lena-tsibizova