AMN Reviews: Jelena Glazova – The Malady of Death (2018; Pan y Rosas)

Latvia’s Jelena Glazova is a sound artist working in the musique concrete field. The Malady of Death, a two-track release, was made by processing her own voice. She views her techniques as a way of providing vocal expression without relying on actual speech. Remarkably, there is little on the album that suggests voice as the source material. Instead, Glazova manipulates her recordings to the point where they take on drone-like or percussive characteristics. Sparse waves of distortion overlap to create constructive interference in the form of beats. These oscillations combine in pairs or triads.  The elements mainly explore the lower-registers, often hovering in a frequency range that is easy to overlook. At times, these sounds resemble adverse weather patterns (e.g., thunder and lightning) or extra-planetary noises, which are in line with the overall emotional tone of the album. Toward the end of the second track, Mechanical Breathing, Glazova ramps up the intensity into roiling walls of rapidly vibrating distortion that climax with a windblown hellscape.

http://www.panyrosasdiscos.net/2018/02/pan-y-rosas-release-the-malady-of-death-by-jelena-glazova/