A lot of people land up sometime or other in Berlin. But for the Russian artist Eleonora Zaripova it wasn’t the lifestyle that drew her here: at 15 she was suffering from a severe illness and was sent to a Berlin hospital since this was the only place that you could get the medicine needed for the treatment. She recovered from the illness and from that point has called the city her home.
A mix of trip hop and experimental indie-electro
It was at the tender age of five that Eleonora started taking classical piano lessons and today takes part in various jazz projects. She composes, produces and sings her own music as well though, which she describes as a mixture of trip hop and experimental indie-electro. She recently published her new song Sleep on her Soundcloud page.
Bleak, bubbling synth sounds
The piece begins with insistent electronic drums and bleak, bubbling synth sounds, to which are added concentrated and sometimes overlapping vocal mantras. What’s especially interesting is the way there’s no conventional song structure, but instead the sound spreads, changes and develops.
Sleep sounds like the feeling of swapping clubs at 3 in the morning
A certain dramatic tension dominates the whole, like a three-and-a-half minute theatre piece: life is knocking softly somewhere, and like a sleepwalker you keep approaching the sound before once more drawing back. Sleep sounds like the feeling of swapping clubs at 3 in the morning and then falling into bed four hours later with a featherlight head.
Review: Bastian Geiken | Translation: Noel Maurice
