Anne Gillis – «…»

The first album of new material from Anne Gillis in 27 years somehow managed to slip by most people on its release late last year, so i'm glad to now have the opportunity to cast a little light on what is an astounding collection of experimental electronics. On first listen i mistook <...> for a live album, due to the subtle and soft-handed way Gillis patiently allows her compositions to slowly flower and then fully bloom. The opening side is an exercise in restrained noise aesthetics, quietly glitching electronics hissing and whirring like mechanical, malfunctioning cicadas. It's both primitive and sophisticated, the technology slowly decaying in a waterfall of expert layering. The second side throws up some confounding surprises, evolving from its highly textural noise foundation to something approaching broken down hyperreal synth pop (a throwback perhaps to her Devil's Picnic alias?). It reaches its apotheosis on Appel a la Base, an insanely catchy (!!!) symphonic moment of melodicism in no way presaged during the first 25 minutes, as if the failing machinery has suddenly been recalibrated into ecstatic compliance. Expert record from a master. Edition of 300.