Liminal Winter – A Liminal Winter
A Liminal Winter
Liminal Winter
EP
Slushwave
Dom Lepore
April 3, 2024
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The club is an otherworldly location. In its most groundbreaking form it shifts from a social space of communal celebration to a deeply personal place. It is the job of a producer – and furthermore a DJ – to bring listeners between the two, showing them both the spirit of their surroundings and the isolated purity of their inner-self. Some dance releases fail to bridge that gap, focusing on one aspect and neglecting the other. And though requisites shift dependent on genre, the releases that help us to understand that the personal and the communal are not so different, are rare and rewarding.
Zvrra illustrates this pathway from the very start of Array of Light. Though harrowing at its beginning, 01 builds beautifully with the help of pressurised releases of percussion. This element lends itself to a club setting, and it is the melody that brings the first feelings of isolation into the track. A lonely and simple tune floating above the beat. It gives the impression of a hallowed pathway, stretching from the chaotic world of the communal to a more sequestered space. Its persistence integrates a creeping sense of solitude that carries throughout the track’s runtime.
Though Zvrra’s awareness of the power of percussion to galvanise an audience is clearly displayed, a beat that inspires excitement is nothing new in the realms of dance music. An inversion of this formula, however, occurs on 03. It is the jangling percussive sound that hugs close to the listener throughout the first half of the track that causes an atmosphere of solitude this time. The kick drum comes from somewhere deep. The cooperative energy breathes through an acid bassline and determined melodic undercurrent. As percussion pulls away from the listener and toward a more dance sound over the runtime, it is difficult not to get swept up in the cohesion.
Throughout Array of Light, the kicks stamp out a code that originates from the depths of Chicago, though they play into a very different space. Often submerged under aqueous reverb or icy melodies, the EP has a natural sound. 04 is like a gargantuan entity slowly emerging from underneath thick layers of glacial ice. The splinters appear slowly over time, much like the crystal shards that adorn the release’s cover. Zvrra sculpts with the slow hand of nature.
It takes patience and delicacy to create a durational experience, especially when contemplating a room full of moving bodies may cause one to clearly divide build-up and breakdown. But it is proof of Zvrra’s talents that Array of Light takes the elusive form of a sonic continuum. The artist travels between the realms of the club and the soul in a fluid motion. The strides are inconspicuous and incremental, and the atmosphere is one that balances a communal power with an epiphanic thoughtfulness.
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