Immersed Sensibilities is an attempt to transcribe feelings, stories, and events into a synthetic, self-contained sonic universe.
This music is flawless in its beauty and solemn ferocity
A lovely instrumental collage of contemporary classical microsounds that are sculpted in ways that are always very interesting, bowed strings can make a lot of very expressive sounds. Immersed Sensibilities is an attempt to transcribe feelings, stories, and events into a synthetic, self-contained sonic universe. Instruments appearing in tracks consist of violin, baritone violin, cello, synthesizers and keys. Strings have harmonics and the way a bow sounds can shriek nicely, add vocals and the effect is gentle, always interesting and exquisitely emotionally detailed. From the notes, Antonina’s works introduce the listener to a specific sonic “biosphere” in which we hear synthetic “beings” invented, and pictured by the imagination. The voice fragments are a reference to the listener’s consciousness because the words are the only recognizable element—reminiscent of human reality.
Knowing that the artist spent half a year in seclusion, in her home studio, composing and recording practically every day immeasurably adds each of us to the story here. That way, she could focus on ideas and experiment with all available resources. That way, we each redefined our new lives, post pandemic. Things are still changing.
“While working on this album I decided to limit interaction with other people as much as I could.” ~ Antonina Car
This music is flawless in its beauty and solemn ferocity. What I hear are multi-sensorial layers of enigma and science, mysterious and unexplained music, the violin family has a rich range of voices and nuance, I love bowed instrument sounds. When the voice appears, being the reference for the imagination, as the words bring more context.
“I wanted to create a small sonic universe containing structures and its own impression of time. I spent 6 months in a pretty isolated state, almost every day working on music.”
Threshold, brink, gateway, creation, entrance, verge, opening, disappearance, recognition ::
Beautiful, delicate and reflective, framing the disordered and uncertain beginning with an expressive yet appeased ending. Besides the acoustic instruments and recorded voice, sounds are highly processed, and recordings in the background that could appear as field recordings (wind, thunders, rustles) are in fact designed completely digitally. The idea of fluidity and ambivalence as a form of understanding and accepting transitional states in life, provided internal thoughts and true space for limitless experiments. I am a huge Dagmar Krause fan from way back, and this hits my good spots. Fervency is an emotional state that reflects the transfigurative character of nature, perfectly showing its strength and vulnerability.
“I would say that throughout the album songs introduce the listener to the peculiar sonic “biosphere” where organisms are fully synthetic, made up by the imagination.”
The constant listener investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they produce.
“I spent a lot of time reflecting on the idea that every event occurring in nature it’s a poetic form on its own and I wanted to try transcribing my feelings to stories and events I imagined could take place.”
Fragments that resemble field recordings (wind, thunder, rustling) are designed entirely digitally. According to the accompanying notes, at first, the album was intended to be instrumental. During the composition process, the artist arranged subsequent layers of sound by humming, however, she began to perceive the voice as another instrument. Antonina used the violin, baritone violin, cello, keyboards, and synthesizers, recording all these instruments herself. The vocals and voice parts were edited by Karol Wiśniewski. The last track includes a flute and a clarinet played by a composer from Malaysia, Zurfahani Batrisya.
“When a person hears something, that something arrives at the ear as a mechanical sound wave traveling through the air, but within the ear it is transformed into neural action potentials. The intensity range of audible sounds is enormous, nature being the ultimate source of metaphors for the human condition.”
“Phenomenons and events occurring in nature are the ultimate source of metaphors for every human condition. Nature perfectly shows us its strength and vulnerability, poetically flawless in its beauty and ferocity. The brain utilizes subtle differences in loudness, tone and timing between the two ears to allow us to localize sound sources. It’s a reflection of the intensity with which humans often imagine their emotional presence matters.”
Immersed Sensibilities has a classical feeling, all music has a magical reputation. We interpret sounds we hear, we design sounds to be heard. Car gives us much to ponder and enjoy. The cello is a fantastic instrument and this is a pleasantly wild and thoughtful ride for the ears. “Emerging” (1:33) starts bringing a full string swing feeling, the strong bass-phantom notes beat, with intermodulation distortion products that ring like fire. With vocals sung like poetry, a playful spirit and glissando bow acrobatics, “Fluid Matter” (5:33) makes playful shrieking squeaks and squeaky harmonics, so dolphin perfect. Blending melodies from different times while matching the haunting emotive strings, this is my perfect listening experience. The amazing neohuman string voices dematerialize and return. “Entropy” (4:55) to me in this case presents a courtly atmosphere, against a distant but growing booming rumble, theatrical sounds including thunder. And the musical story told is captivating.
Sometimes I hear piano in layers, and electronic meteors getting closer in the dark ::
Dancing arms wave while holding tight to the bottom of the ocean, “Sea Anemone” (4:08), is a marine animal with rich strange sounds (perhaps only on this recording, otherwise silent in nature) plus the vocal layers and the sounds from water and deeper underwater feelings. “Fluttery Critters” (2:47) has a video that was made in collaboration with the visual artist Zuzanna Kołodziej. Sometimes I hear piano in layers, and electronic meteors getting closer in the dark.
Have you ever wondered? “Great Collapse” (3:01) is a doom story, giving a feeling of respect for human resilience, through difficult changing weather and otherwise natural phenomena that have for millenia a dangerous part of living on Earth. Falling from the sky, “Effluence” (3:43), slowly forever, with wonderful gongs plus strings, so much articulation! This is masterful. I love murky atmospherics, telling a story of discarded matter from industrial processes. Here we are.
“Immense State Of Solitude” (4:06) walks with me through a scary landscape. Vocals and awesome deep percussion and bass thing, blending with the vocals sung with a quiet-strong presence, a very impressive presentation; in “Glistening Dewdrops” (4:16) I find harps with groaning strings, the magnitude of the smallest difference between how humans perceive various sounds, quivering. Now I might hear layers of shivering ghost voices, “Reveries” (4:25), melodically weaving within an exquisitely reverb stressed harp and piano patina.
Limen is the boundary of perception at a sensory threshold, hence barely perceptible. Subliminal means below perception. The absolute threshold is the lowest amount of sensation detectable by a sense organ. “Limen” (5:11) puts the vocals and voice with flute and clarinet played by Zurfahani Batrisya. Every track has a strong sense of loving all of the instrument’s capabilities, and getting the most out of the bowed or plucked or strummed strings. The last piece on the album is a form of a manifesto. This is the only song in which the artist does not play string instruments. Instead, she focuses on the narrative, and this time a real field recording appears in the song—subtle footsteps on the forest ground. The song correlates with the artist’s journey and it’s a form of a letter written to oneself. It combines a disorderly and uncertain beginning with a resolved yet subdued ending.
Antonina Car is a young music artist from Poland. She started her musical education at the age of 5. She attended the violin class at the State Primary Music School. In her works, she focuses on recording acoustic instruments and processing their sounds electronically. She devotes most attention to string instruments. Her main area of interest is the design of sound structures, which she creatively combines with violin harmonies and improvisation.
Time Released Sound, founded in 2011, is a lovingly hand made, limited edition release music label that is as much an art project as it is a musical outlet. Focusing on modern classical, ambient electronic and electroacoustic sounds, we produce visuals and packaging that are as uniquely beautiful as the music itself.
Immersed Sensibilities is available on Time Released Sound. [Bandcamp]
