Labels: Fire
Review by: Alex Deller
Sarah Lipstate’s instrumental guitar and synth pieces are quietly splendid things. At times her music reminds me of the pleasant, slow-to-bloom drones of Mountains or Pan*American, but there’s often something more animated and playful at work. Crystalline sprinkles and powdery harmonic motifs drift at the edges of perception; synth passages yawn, stretch and then collapse backwards into endless, cosy Sunday mornings. The ideas are there to be explored and examined, but they are not pushy about it. You can allow them to fizzle and blossom vaguely, barely within earshot, or you can slowly and smilingly turn the volume as high as it’ll go and let them fully absorb you. Whichever you choose, though, you’re sure to be rewarded.