FIGURE BESIDE ME tells stories of love in tongues. For her third EP, object blue stitches two hyper-narrative tapestries of sound that we experience as a feverish procession passing through a heart as through the center of town. The buzzing excitement of known potential. The hush from afar indicating an approach. The clanging. The chanting. The shuffling. The gowns. The bodies. The chaos. The elation. And the distinct quiet of its memory.
We process the ecstatic as a series of sonic instances edited together with blue’s particular penchant for structural asymmetry and moody tinkering. It’s our pleasure as listeners to hear how these bits, and the bits that make up the bits, waver among emotional and physical states. Onwards, onwards. There is so much to figure out, and to see, and to be, and it feels like I can do it because she is beside me.
In a recent interview with TANK magazine, blue discussed how the concrète samples that she incorporates into her live shows are inspired by Pauline Oliveros’s deep listening strategies. These listening/recording methods, while not directly used here, still feel applicable to her production in the way that she creates instances for listening outside of common methodologies or rhythmic patterns.
Rather than follow a climactic arc, we’re guided through many, many sonic spaces that feel like an extension of love and all of its associated emotions reflected. To see her is to see the promise of seeing her again. To hear her is to know that she is listening. To listen is to be reminded that true love can not be divided and resolves to stay dedicatedly unconstrained.
FIGURE BESIDE ME is out now on USB. It comes with an accompanying booklet (pictured above) designed by Ciaran Birch that includes texts by blue and Courtney S. Danforth, and photographs by blue’s wife Natalia Podgórska.
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