Lissom – A Nest of Iterations – CD – Dragon’s Eye

This debut from Lissom (Multi-Media artist, Tana Sprague) is one of those recordings that actively resists any one convenient tag or pigeon hole. Evolving from a series of layered and recursive elements (hence the title), ranging from field recording to acoustic, to purely synthesised segments, Lissom creates the conditions for a truly emergent audible structure. The image of a bee-hive on the cover at first had me confounded, and not quite making the connection between the title and it’s meaning until I listened further. It became apparent that this is the perfect corrolary of the music contained within, a synergetic merging of the organic and the synthetic, the minimal and iterative in one remarkable release.

Lissom’s soundscapings are restless, uneasy structures that fluctuate between micro-minimalist interventions and complex, near dissonant frequencies; a tense and effortlessly immersive listening experience that draws the auditor in with each subsequent piece. For want of a near-comparison, I suppose Lissom occupies a space that is currently inhabited by Rapoon, although her work is far more complex and less tangibly influenced by the cultural or religious inferences of Robin Storey. Technically, this is a sublime work that is sonically about as sharply focussed as it gets, leaving no space for chance or error, one gets the impression that Ms Sprague has made this work a labour of love. Highly recommended. BGN