by David Wilikofsky
Diatoms, unicellular organisms that fill the oceans, are responsible for producing up to 50% of the oxygen on Earth each year; they’re an essential yet nearly invisible piece of our ecosystem. The fact that Delisa Paloma-Sisk’s musical project, Diatom Deli, takes its name from these creatures feels apt. Paloma-Sisk has been producing music under the name since 2014, writing and recording folk songs that sound at once celestial and earthbound. Her latest album, Time-Lapse Nature, is a set of songs that channels the beauty and power the natural world.
On Time-Lapse Nature, Paloma-Sisk threads the needle between folk tradition and audacious experimentation. Her intricate guitar work and intimate vocals bring to mind folk fore-bearers, from the mysticism of Vashti Bunyan to the pastoral tranquility of Virginia Astley, but the album pushes these touchpoints to strange places. Paloma-Sisk’s musical language cannot be constrained by traditional song structures. Verses and choruses on tracks like “Disarray” and “Sunday’s Dying Light” transform into wordless, meditative chants; elsewhere voice memos or snippets of conversation linger in the foreground. There’s a sense of fluidity to the entire album; despite its apparent tranquility, it’s quietly but constantly mutating below the surface.
More than anything, I find that Paloma-Sisk’s use of found sound on Time-Lapse Nature critical to understanding the album. Everything from the sounds of the natural world to old voicemails are so seamlessly integrated into her music that you’d be forgiven for not even noticing. Thunderclaps become percussive elements; waves lapping at the shore provide melodies with a nudge forward. Wind chimes and bird songs impart tracks with an otherworldly mysticism. It’s impressive just how natural (pun intended) these sounds feel in the context of her music, but it is also what imbues it with its power. It’s music that understands how to harness these sounds’ power, channeling it to create an album that becomes a literal force of nature.