{"product_id":"isabelle-lewis-greetings","title":"ISABELLE LEWIS - Greetings","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLP - Black Vinyl. Only 300 copies pressed worldwide in this edition.  \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWho is \u003cstrong\u003eIsabelle Lewis\u003c\/strong\u003e, anyway?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat kind of music does she make? Is she an opera singer? Does she write pop songs? Does she compose ethereal ambient soundscapes? Does she play chamber music on the violin? Is she producing dark, electronic beats?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWell… yes. But Isabelle Lewis is not so much a person as a project. Isabelle’s debut album, Greetings, credits a trio of composer–performers at its heart: producer \u003cstrong\u003eValgeir Sigurðsson\u003c\/strong\u003e, vocalist \u003cstrong\u003eBenjamin Abel Meirhaeghe\u003c\/strong\u003e, and violinist \u003cstrong\u003eElisabeth Klinck\u003c\/strong\u003e. The sound of the elusive Isabelle Lewis is heard most clearly in the push and pull between them, the three-way tension that gives the album its musical and emotional drive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach of the three brings more to the collaboration than those epithets might imply. Elisabeth’s solo performance practice incorporates composition, improvisation, live electronics, and a close command of bowing and fingering techniques that make her fiddle sing, whisper or whistle as required. Benjamin is a self-taught countertenor—keening, crooning, and swelling to a voluptuous sensuality—but also an interdisciplinary stage director and performer. Well known for his work as a producer and studio collaborator, and as a composer of scores for film and stage, Valgeir’s solo discography interweaves meticulously crafted electronics, drones, noise, and other digital elements with acoustic instruments and vocals recorded with naked, unflinching clarity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut the extravagant theatricality Benjamin brings to the aptly titled “\u003cem\u003eDrama\u003c\/em\u003e”—also featuring a heroic violin solo from Elisabeth—grapples against the thudding bass of the implacable digital backdrop. On “\u003cem\u003eMother, Shelter Me\u003c\/em\u003e” Valgeir’s austere and detailed production throws the hushed violin and vocals into stark relief. The result is an exquisitely uncanny juxtaposition of past and present, human and mechanical, like a Rococo treasure viewed under cold fluorescent lights, or an 18th-century automaton slowly opening its clockwork eyes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven the lyrics seem somehow out of time. On “\u003cem\u003eO Solitude\u003c\/em\u003e,” Benjamin goes so far as to quote an entire song by the first great English opera composer, Henry Purcell, verbatim. No stranger to Purcell’s music, which has made its way into Benjamin’s theatrical productions as well, here Isabelle Lewis removes Purcell’s melodies and harmonies and sets the text, \u003cstrong\u003eKatherine Phillips\u003c\/strong\u003e’s 17th century translation of a poem by \u003cstrong\u003eAntoine Girard de Saint-Amant\u003c\/strong\u003e, to new music whose heightened, archaic character nevertheless seems haunted by Baroque ghosts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout the album, the outsized emotions and timeless archetypes of Benjamin’s lyrics feel like relics from some half-forgotten past—from the neatly rhymed couplets of “\u003cem\u003eFisherman\u003c\/em\u003e,” a seemingly straightforward (but still somewhat askew) character study, to the abstraction of “\u003cem\u003eMoonshell\u003c\/em\u003e,” whose words seem like the fragments of some ancient, lost lament.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is just another of many ways in which the Isabelle Lewis carefully distorts the listener’s notions of time. On a more micro level, time can stop for a moment of weightless, drifting ambience, and then plunge forward as the cloud of harmonies suddenly lock into tempo with the drop of the bass or the change of a chord. Or else that weightless moment is allowed to be, as in the aptly named prologue and epilogue to these \u003cem\u003eGreetings\u003c\/em\u003e (“Voicemail”\/“…and farewell”), or in the interstitial tracks that bind the album together, connecting its dramatic peaks with expanses of meditative stasis.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album as a whole is elegantly shaped, swelling from an intimate, interpersonal statement into something deeper and more spacious. The first half of the album leans slightly towards self-contained pop songcraft and ticking beats, while side B jumps off from “\u003cem\u003eO Solitude\u003c\/em\u003e” into the almost symphonic grandeur of songs like “\u003cem\u003eMoonshell\u003c\/em\u003e” or the instrumental “Not the water, air, or the dirt.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut as it progresses, the contrasts only grow more sublime: antique and postmodern, human and machinelike. The ominous weight of the droning sub-bass and trombone (guest player \u003cstrong\u003eHelgi Hrafn Jónsson\u003c\/strong\u003e) only makes the interplay between vocals and violins (guest player \u003cstrong\u003eDaniel Pioro\u003c\/strong\u003e joining \u003cstrong\u003eElisabeth\u003c\/strong\u003e) seem more delicate and vulnerable. The ethereal string tremolos of “\u003cem\u003eMoonshell\u003c\/em\u003e” seem to pull against the heavy, shuddering electronics and layers of crooning vocals.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd that, in short, is where you will find Isabelle Lewis. Like an ancient stone archway, or a delicate house of cards, the architecture of \u003cem\u003eGreetings\u003c\/em\u003e is held together by the tension between opposing forces. Not just in Elisabeth’s playing, Benjamin’s singing, or Valgeir’s arrangements and production but in the conflict and contrast that generates the synergy between them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOh—Isabelle says hi, by the way. She’s looking forward to meeting you. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFFO\/RIYL\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e: Perfume Genius, Anhoni, Rufus Wainwright, James Blake, Bat For Lashes, John Grant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bedroom Community","offers":[{"title":"LP - Vinyl","offer_id":49099675271513,"sku":"SDZ-16432","price":18.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0588\/3455\/0945\/files\/Isabelle_Lewis_-_Greetings_-_2024.jpg?v=1723648885","url":"https:\/\/spindizzyrecords.com\/products\/isabelle-lewis-greetings","provider":"Spindizzy Dublin","version":"1.0","type":"link"}