start w/o me were marked by a naturalism. Regardless of the origins of their construction, these releases played out as if rousay’s microphone simply chanced upon its captured sounds (musical or otherwise) before she spliced these clips together into their final forms. In contrast,
a softer focus feels orchestrated, like a staged production. Especially as driven by
Dani Toral’s narrative and artistic direction,
a softer focus possesses a theatricality, where each gesture plays a part in constructing an ephemeral narrative.
The album unfolds like a gentle tug of war between the competing camps of minimalist chamber pieces (performed, on various tracks, by string players
As with many of rousay s physical releases, American Dreams Record s original pressing of 100 LPs is selling fast. However, the label has already announced a second pressing of 600 copies of the album, divided between black and color versions of the record. Both digital and physical editions of
a softer focus can be purchased on Bandcamp, and the album is available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music.
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Robert Barry
, April 8th, 2021 09:01
The second Claire Rousay release in as many months feels like a revelation, for Robert Barry
Photo: Dani Toral
A snowdrift of long, languorous organ notes. Whistling tones, like swallows arcing through the sky. A rustle of foley. There’s crackling, crinkling – it’s hard to tell exactly what is going on, but there’s a sense of activity, things happening – real things, somewhere in a real place. A flicker of light. Then the whole edifice collapses suddenly, like the air has been sucked out. There’s a breath, the music takes a beat. Then into the clearing – and I mean that literally: picture a forest clearing, or like clearing a desk, just sweep all that clutter out the way – a voice rises up. “I’m trying not to miss you.” It’s Rousay’s ‘own’ voice – but rendered alien, synthesised into virtual life with the familiar stepped trill of autotune software spinning gothic melismas from that third syllable: “not”. A