An out-of-this-world experience
Russian musician Kedr Livanskiy recently released Liminal Soul, her fourth album. Livanskiy showcases her abilities as a producer throughout the album’s nine tracks, using sounds that could be from another planet. With haunting harmonies that float over percussive and machine-like production, each song takes the listener on its own separate journey.
A rhythmic and electronic sound encompasses the third track, “Boy.” On this track, she sings about breaking up with a boy. Their relationship is simply not working, and there is no other explanation that she can give. This is the only track in English. The repetitive electronic rhythm is easy to listen to, kept in the background by the drums, and the edited vocals sound otherworldly.
Joined by Synecdoche Montauk on “Night,” Kedr Livanskiy creates an energetic dance beat. Like many of the other tracks, she wrote and produced this one by herself. Synecdoche only joins her on vocals, as both performers chant in a haunting rhythm that is broken up by percussive solos. Her voice floats over the track and weaves a haunting melody.
On the subsequent track, “Your Turn,” she is joined by Flaty for both production, writing and vocals. She sings in Russian like many of the other tracks on the album. This track features a smooth melody that provides a nice contrast to the percussive accompaniment, which has a gentle yet energetic and dancey sound.
“Badlands” is a complete change of sound from the previous tracks on this album. It begins with a machine-like electronic intro that returns to break up the verses and choruses. The track has a creepy industrial sound during those breaks, but while she sings, the production is much more gentle and melodic with chimes and background voices.
“Storm Dancer,” the final track of the album, continues these industrial machine-like sounds. Intimidating and percussive, this track mostly lacks words. There are occasional background vocals that float over the production, but the focal point is the mechanical production and bizarre sounds.
With its intense percussion, electronic melodies and arsenal of weird sound effects, Liminal Soul truly sounds out-of-this-world. Altogether, this is an excellent showcase of Livanskiy’s abilities as a producer.
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