Pop/Alt - O+S, a fascinating and adventurous new project from Orenda Fink (Azure Ray, Art In Manila) and fellow Birmingham, Alabama resident Scalpelist (aka Cedric LeMoyne of Remy Zero), emerged after Fink began a sonic art project involving the composition of musical tracks based on sound samples that were collected at various locations ranging from Omaha (her adopted home base) to Haiti.

Calling on LeMoyne to help shape the collection into the foundations of real songs, it became obvious to both that they had tapped into something new, primal and revelatory. Says Lemoyne: "We’d take samples of sounds of Haitian rituals, street noises or whatever, then cut them into loops. We’d arrange them into forms and write songs with them, or she might have started a song and I would take some of these sound materials to create bodies of music around it.”

"We listened to a lot of David Lynch soundtracks, 10cc and old 4AD records," adds Fink. "I was looking for this balance of light and dark. You don't know why it is dark because it is actually very light sounding. That is what I was going for."

The result is an ethereal and haunting excursion into the nether-regions of alternative pop songwriting, sweeping melodies played out over a sound mosaic that oddly, mysteriously makes it a compelling and rewarding listen. Tracks such as the leading "Permanent Scar" match Fink's dreamy vocals with a churning, rhythmic base and a kitchen's sink worth of instruments drifting in and out while "New Life" really does sound like a lost 10cc song filtered through hazy, lazy-beats and 3am regrets. Highly recommended.

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