Artist: Mirroring
Album: Foreign Body
Label: Kranky
Rating:7.5

Mirroring is a combinations Jesy Fortino of Tiny Vipers, Liz Harris also known as Grouper and a songwriting session in Portland. Both artists already have a similar style and combining them just magnified both they’re sounds. Most of the record is lacking any kind of traditional instrumentation or song structure, when I first sat down and started listening I felt like I was listening to a “Sounds of
Pretension” CD and I was all set to tear it a new one. Most of the songs don’t even have a discernible beat to them, and in the liner notes they refuse to individually credit the musicians.

Taken as a whole though, it makes sense. Most of the album doesn’t feature individual instruments, “Silent from Above” features some simple quiet acoustic guitar along with some forlorn singing that left me in a beautifully sad state of mind. The majority of the record though counts on various sound effects and distortion to create a very ethereal sound and atmosphere that would be hard to credit to any one musician. The exception to this is of course Harris’ singing, but even her voice drifts in and out of the music, leading you on but leaving you feeling lost in the soundscape that they’ve created. I couldn’t make out most of the words for the life of me, especially on “Mine,” but I never really felt like I had to. I never felt the words were integral to meaning, freeing my mind up to relax and drift along with the sound. The entire sound is densely layered with the different instruments and each song flows into the other without any noticeable interruption to the experience. It’s quite a beautiful album when you’re in the right frame of mind.

In case it’s not already clear, this is most definitely not a dance album, it’s not even in the same
ballpark. It’s slow, very slow, and very quiet. The mood of the songs ranges from mellow to downright
catatonic and you’ll likely struggle to make heads or tails of most of the songs. However, none of that is to say that it’s bad; it’s experimental, and definitely worth checking out if you’re into softer music.

7.5