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Klein – Harmattan (2021)

by David Wilikofsky

London based multi-disciplinary artist Klein has steady forged her own artistic path over the past few years, building experimental soundscapes out of everything from dance beats to found sound. Following two self released albums, Klein has signed with the Netherlands-based classical label Pentatone for her latest set of music. While it may seem like an odd pairing on the surface, Harmattan is an album that sees Klein doing something new: experimenting with classical and jazz instrumentation and compositional techniques. The end results feel like both a new path forward and a natural continuation of her artistic practice.

Klein’s previous output felt rooted to the corporeal world through its usage of familiar sounds: distorted R&B grooves, field recordings, conversations between friends. Harmattan largely strips away those signifiers, leaving behind something vast and elemental. Named after a season in West Africa, much of the album is devoted to building expansive ambient landscapes; tracks like “the haunting of grace” and “ray” slowly develop from low rumblings to cinematic climaxes. Even when the human voice appears late in the album on “skyfall”, it’s processed and contorted into something completely alien. On their surface, these compositions seem more interested in constructing their own worlds than existing in ours.

While I first found myself swept up the music’s grandeur, the more I listen the more I hear minute details that shift the emotional tenor of the music. While I was first pulled in by the undulating synths of “hope dealers,” I now wait for a fragile piano melody to emerge at the track’s midpoint. It’s a plaintive voice that will not be drowned out despite the rising din around it, almost like a distant memory that refuses to fade. The sparkling drones of “unknown opps” feel animated by the horn lines quietly coursing beneath it, providing a sign of life in its alien landscape. Perhaps my descriptions seem a bit colorful, but it’s because this is music that feels like many things at once: exercises in world building, pure distillations of feelings, beginnings or endings of stories. Harmattan may sound like a new path forward for Klein, but it is just as potent and full of possibilities as anything else in her catalog.

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