Elisa Luu
Chromatic Sigh
Hidden Shoal Recordings

Italian lady Elisa Luu, or Elisabetta Luciani, made quite an impression with single choice "The Garden" off this new album, Chromatic Sigh.

Chromatic Sigh is her debut album, and explores the tonal minimalism of electronic music.
"The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone or half step apart". "A chromatic scale is a nondiatonic scale consisting entirely of half-step intervals", having, "no tonic", due to the symmetry or equal spacing of its tones". (wikipedia.or).
Sigh... Pro musician math. I'd better think twice on that. Focus, focus. Anyway, by listening to the album, the beauty of the music unveils itself. The airbrushing title track opens, followed by the more up-tempo and lively, almost rocking, "Pixie Space Rock". This is electronica type early 1970s era Pink Floyd instrumentalism. Next comes the magical "Arteline", but "Slow Bass Flute" (which also appeared on her debut EP, Floating Sounds, Phantom Channel) is the records tour de force, along with "The Garden", of course. Closing track "Warn Plate" is sort of a soft touchdown landing after some levitated time with Luu's looping and lovely soundscapes.

Chromatic Sigh is tasteful performance and creation of instrumental music pieces and platters, done with elegance and excellence. It's a panchromatic experiment, sensitive to light, beaming all the colours in the visible spectrum. This is an album to fly and/or float away with. It's almost a pastoral experience.

Copyright © 2009 Håvard Oppøyen