9.4
/Avant-garde, Noise, Minimalism, Experimentalism, Microtonal, Ethereal pop, Ambient, Modern classical/
Comment: H Stewart is a musician from Kansas, USA who has issued a few albums under Clinical Archives before it (more concretely, regarding the first 100 albums of the Moscow-based cult label). However, her music can be considered an instance of ethereal pop made up of hovering ambient textures and sensitive vowel effects which by their shapes and timbre may remind of the aesthetics of Laurie Anderson, and Meredith Monk, for instance. On the other side, it is subjected to the concept of the minimalism, this way avoiding to be braw and joyous. There are a pair of astonishing compositions (Mindtown; SongBird) where haunting ambiance is amplified with fragile piano chords Furthermore, her compositions inwardly could even be classified as compulsive or obsessive. Now her soundscape is accentuated with the washes of massive yet lofty noise, or using the looping, glitch-y effects of a sampling unit, now it is more somber and even a little bit ghastly, however, searching for balance and also finding it. In a word, it is a distinctive, very special publication. It is like the touch of a butterfly causing an incessant array of waves thereby ultimately changing the world into a mysterious but better place around itself.