- The third installment in RVNG Intl.'s Commend See series, Parcel, is Melanie Velarde's first proper solo album. The Berlin-based artist has a decades-long history with experimental music and art, playing in bands, exhibiting in galleries around the world and exploring her fascination with field recordings at length. The solo music she's released through the various Temporary Archives accounts (YouTube, Bandcamp, etc.) works elements of her background in sound art into a more tuneful and electronic-based approach. A 20-minute recording Velarde uploaded to SoundCloud just before the end of 2016 juxtaposes long, unspooling synth compositions with nature sounds, not unlike Anthony Child's Maui Jungle records. Parcel comes out of a similar mindset, trading the natural textures for more layers of analog warmth.
Birds quietly chirp in the peripheries of "Parcel" and voices drift through as ghostly blurs, but otherwise these ten pieces are more or less synths and drum machines wrapped in subtle tape hiss. The music's timbral qualities are plenty engrossing, and the way Velarde loosely arranges her instruments only amplifies the allure. Arpeggiations swirl kaleidoscopically in "Bote," as harmonies flicker in the distance and pockmarks of distortion crinkle on the surface. "Memo" then inverts the piece as a sort of surreal synth pop, bringing structure to the mercurial tones with a soft bass pulse and cyclical drum patterns. The beatless "Wind" lilts and glimmers as it floats in the air, while "Gaze" bobs hypnotically through interwoven loops. With their one-word titles and uninterrupted flows, each song feels like a living world unto itself.
Non-electronic instruments also surface throughout the album—a piano is buried in "Parcel," a detuned guitar jangles in "Hoopla," and faint resemblances of horns, chimes, strings and woodwinds appear. They bring a sense of reality and humanity to the boundless, otherworldly music. Coming from an artist who has long been interested in location-specific recordings and performances, Parcel sounds surprisingly placeless and somewhat remote. But in creating her own spaces for a change, Velarde has uncovered somewhere well worth inhabiting.
Tracklist01. Bote
02. Memo
03. Tur
04. Wind
05. Parcel
06. Ocelot
07. Hoopla
08. Gaze
09. Wide
10. Crocodile