Klara Lewis & Yuki Tsujii - Salt water

Salt Water (2024) is a master class in genre-bending and time distortion. Its unconventional structures and recording techniques enable the duo of Klara Lewis and Yuki Tsujii to tap into this hallucinogenic dream-like state. They created a fantasy world through three major factors: loops, distortion, and the influence of post-rock.

The continuous looping repeats wash and wading into each other. For example, 'Just up the Road' uses repeating motifs to draw you further into her hypnotic state while allowing the distorted screeches to upset the gentle rhythm, much like someone staring in their sleep. Conversely, the track 'Pool' actively distorts that loop. The whole track becomes slower and more sluggish. What's surprising is the brevity of these tracks, but constant repetition garbles the perception of time.

The liberal use of distortion across the album builds tension, texture, and a tremendous sense of age throughout the album. 'Close Up' balances heavy overdrive with subtle saturation, making the tracks sound like a relic pulled out of an abandoned attic and played on the decrepit machine next to it. The haunting vocalisation screech and ring in the ear. The track 'Lift' takes things to an experimental left field. It's fuzzy, industrial, and incessantly mechanical. It shows Lewis and Tsujii have range in their locker as they can jump from creepy saturation to a full-blown industrial music box.

The ambient and post-rock worlds have always been semi-connected. Musicians use experimental techniques and effects to create huge cinematic worlds, whether dark ambient or a colossal blockbuster burst of energy. The cut' 2008' embodies the dark dramatics perfectly. It's vast and dark, with this otherworldly cynicism embedded into every note. The same can be said for 'Map', which uses more orchestral motifs to illustrate that feeling of vastness.

Klara Lewis & Yuki Tsujii condense these three distinct artistic expressions into a cohesive album. The title track, 'Salt Water', and 'One Two Three Embassy', perfectly exemplify these three elements coming into perfect harmony. Rich textured pieces that distil the album's essence into a combined 3 minutes and 45. In some places, it's raucous with energy. Yeah, in the same passage, another layer is deep and foreboding, highlighting the selective nature of the craft.

Tracklist:

1. Just up the Road

2. Close Up

3. Waltz

4. Lift

5. One Two Three Embassy

6. 2008

7. Bed of Sand

8. Dear

9. Map

10. Pool

11. Welcome Back

12. Salt Water

Label: The Trilogy Tapes (2024)

Klara Lewis & Yuki Tsujii - Salt water