Last updated on January 6, 2022
While I’ve been focusing on instrumental work recently, I’ve been dabbling back into music with vocals. The artsy downtempo electronica of Alexandra’s “River Snake” is not purely instrumental, as the vocals play a key role in the mood of the song. But the arrangement is deeply important to the song–perhaps even more so than the vocal melodies. By focusing on sonic elements that are highly evocative and association-laden, the song marries the historic with the futuristic and wraps it in mystical vibes.
The track begins with church bells–a staple of ancient life–then introduces a fluttering flute and 1950/1960s voiceover tone that are highly reminiscent of NASA space exploration narratives. This tension between the ancient and the new, the natural and the technological, persists throughout the tune in a productive tension.
After the introduction, a persistent, urgent synth like a dull bell emerges as the pacesetter for the track. Over this urgent line float in layers of vocals, some manipulated and some not. High-pitched synths that evoke theremin and more spacy vibes collide with these collaged fragments of vocals and merge into a piece that joins the past and the future. To further make this marriage or natural and technological clear, Alexandra ends the tune with distant, wailing, undulating vocals that are traditional to many styles of music placed over the sound of water lapping the shore. It’s as if Alexandra has become the titular river snake and the process of becoming was the preceding electronic sounds.
The overall effect is one of mysticism and mystical moments–even though Alexandra tells me that the piece is about “‘perennial fear’ growing like a mold inside the subject’s body, a reflection of unrequited love and separate emotions,” the feelings I get are more of reverence for the process of amid the difficulties and uncertainties of life. It’s a beautiful, exciting, complex, fully-realized piece of work.
“River Snake” comes from upcoming full-length Ecdysis, which drops July 26. While the Ecdysis release show is TBD, you can catch Alexandra on August 17th & 18th as part of Spirit House Music Fest at Azøth in Portland, OR.