nothin Quietly Ushers In Winter | New Haven Independent

Quietly Ushers In Winter

Even as Vining,” the second song on Quietly’s Aestivation, fades in, a beat is already driving beneath shimmering chords, moody but not despairing. The singer’s comes in confessional but strong. You got me addicted to the moonlight,” she sings. What follow are a set of lyrics as elliptical as they are emotional, their meaning elusive but the feelings clear.

Full of subtle details and rich soundscapes, on Aestivation Quietly — the musical project of New Haven-based visual artist Cassie Bozicek — makes a big effect. According to Bozicek, it was a long time in coming. I started writing songs on my acoustic guitar as far back as 2006 but I always craved more of an electronic-ambient synth oriented sound,” she wrote in an email. I’m just now starting to feel like I’m able to produce sound that matches my intention as an artist.”

The musical assurance evident on Aestivation belies Bozicek’s humility. Bozicek created the album on her laptop at home, and it vibrates with the thrill of discovering just how much can be done these days with that single tool. Beyond the big emotional statements in every song, there are details to explore, layers of sound moving in and out of one another. Luxation” begins with a chord in each ear, both drenched in effects, a shaking tremolo. Then a slow, clanking beat anchors a sound that swoops in and rushes out again, filled with drama and menace. Bozicek’s voice soars over the top. What is there to say?” she sings, but the music answers the question: a lot.

The instrumental Hibernaculum” makes a cavernous space for itself out of buzzing, pulsing synths. Thanatosis” gets almost choral in its deploying of single melodic lines that weave among one another to create a harmonic lattice for Bozicek’s voice to lose itself in, and that’s before an insistent drumbeat pushes the song forward and a distorted tone — could be a guitar, could be a synth — seems to drop down from the sky to join Bozicek in a duet.

I like my work to be serious and beautiful,” Bozicek wrote. I don’t play live … I used to with my acoustic, but I wasn’t really able to create the experience I would want with the limited resources that I have … I’m totally okay with that. I’m more into building something behind the scenes.” And build she does. The album’s closer, The Holiday Paradox,” starts with the simplest drum beat that serves as the foundation for glassy synthesizers, and then, multiple voices that start off singing in unison but soon split off into rich harmonies that don’t offer solace so much as understanding.

Though Bozicek made Aestivation solo, she’s no hermit. I’m super in awe of the sound art scene in New Haven and I’m lucky to be able to experience it,” she wrote. Everyone is so supportive of each other … it’s just wonderful to be met with friendly and accepting faces anywhere I go.” She’s already planning to release more songs in the near future, which includes possible collaborations with other musicians in town. In the meantime, that Aestivation was released this month seems fitting; it’s music for when the days are getting shorter and the sun is setting earlier, and it feels already like winter is coming, but we know we have ways to keep warm.

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