An atmospheric and eclectic electronic album from Stella Five, Nine Lives translates the atmosphere of visual art and natural landscapes into a riveting listening experience. The Poughkeepsie, NY solo project was recorded entirely from the artist’s laptop setup in Tudor City, New York, combining hardware and software synths with Rhodes, piano, and electric guitar while drawing inspiration from painters including Edward Hopper and Caspar David Friedrich.
“The Mountain” opens with a sense of simmering contemplation, fusing heartbeat-like rhythmic pulses with a starry-eyed array of spacious instrumentation, ranging from soothing electronics to chiming piano. An uptick in effervescent synths and climactic percussion arrives in the final segment, before the relaxing sound of rain and thunder commences “Hot Rod Angels.” Shifts between introspective glimmering and rhythm-friendly sections maintain a lovely sense of momentum while still retaining a serenely absorbing soundscape throughout, with the car-like revving effect being an especially artful insertion prior to more glistening synth characteristics.
Another excellent track, “Rooms by the Sea” weaves arpeggiated synth blissfulness with tranquil effects—like the sound of chirping seagulls—that capture the scene conveyed in the title, evoking the calming appeal of ocean waves and aquatic creatures. “Into the Forest of Moss and Water” consumes with a similar atmospheric realm initially, laid-back and relaxing, before shifting seamlessly to a danceable electro-pop infectiousness complete with a bouncy rhythm section and a catchy sampled lead. Succeeding across both elegant atmospherics and replay-inducing catchiness, Nine Lives is a stellar full-length success from Stella Five.
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“Rooms by the Sea” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
