Nala Sinephro – ‘Space 1.8’ (2021)
It would be easy to call ‘Space 1.8’ minimalist, though there’s hardly anything here that would fit the minimalist format, then again it would be easy to call ‘Space 1.8’ understated, when it fact it’s not, leaving me to suggest that it’s some sort of expansive laid back jazz/ambient jazz (nearly avant-grade) with a bit of electronics … electronics that go on far too long in places and become rather boring over several listens.
All this had me downloading the album and taking it apart to avoid the nonsensical meanderings that would not let me drift away facedown on my sofa … and then I was happy.
All and all, the album’s a romantic collection of fluidity, an adventurous romp through an imaginative pasture located somewhere I’ve never been. There are washes of sound that intersect smoothly with other sounds in a transitory transparent manner that envelop in the most subtle of ways, branching out and folding back in on itself effortlessly, in an almost childlike manner of grace and comfort. This is not to say that there are not moments of intensity and abruptness, where the vibrations seem to continue on in one’s mind long after a passage has ended and morphs into another. There are moments of inspirational clarity, there are moments of esoteric befuddlement, moments of confusion and blissful sonic harmony. When all is said and done, there were no essential moments, and that’s a good thing here, as essentially important movements would have one recalling those instead of seeing ‘Space 1.8’ as a continuum; a single sweet bite of sugar laced gummy candy.
In her fashion, Nala Sinephro suggests that in her world she’s able to bend not only notes, but tones, weaving them as sonic structures of frequency and geometry, all this based on the notion (and perhaps rightly so) that sound is a metaphysical structure that has the ability to move matter, and if not to move matter, certainly to interface with it.
*** The Fun Facts: As to the album’s title, 1.8 suggests that volume capacity can be measured as swept volume, displacement volume or breathing volume. You might also consider that you’ll find 1.8GHz on laptop processors, while desktop processors go up to 5GHz.
Jenell Kesler
Nala Sinephro – ‘Space 1.8’ (Warp 2021)
