Kara-Lis Coverdale - From Where You Came Review
Kara-Lis Coverdale returns with a masterclass in ambient composition that is detailed, disarming, and impossible to ignore.
In a genre where two chords can pass as an impressive listening experience, what constitutes of a great ambient album? To be grabbed by an ambient album is to exist amongst it, to come back to the wordless and have it seep into your system with each listen. A musical feat, to keep the attention of listeners in a genre dense with space and infinite endings, where it could easily fade into background noise. Kara-Lis Coverdale is well adept to this genre, studying music as early as five and directing music in churches across Canada at the age of thirteen. This wealth of experience and knowledge is showcased in ‘From Where You Came’, her first album since 2017. Across the forty-two-minute run time is an example of what makes this genre so formidable.
‘Eternity’ is one of the only tracks that features vocals, choral and churchlike although muted and hidden as the layers evolve to an apex where clarity comes to light, Coverdale singing ‘Everything you know is real/I’m sorry life is beautiful’. It is poignant that what can be made out is charming poetry. What becomes evident whilst listening to the album is Coverdale’s ability to build and arc a narrative from these adaptations, the delight and whimsy is delivered through the minutiae so subtle but strong against the domineering sound of keys at Coverdale’s hands. Bird song is emulated, hints of jazz are pronounced yet not domineering, chamber is achieved in the mellotron-esque expressions. The assembly of sounds does not prevent the project from sounding unified, coming to front of an awakening. ‘Offload flip’ is a pivot, sharp and short leaning into the electronic and deconstructed as an off rhythm is established, reminiscent of a squandered plunderphonics.
An album that meanders with intrigue and delight at each turn and introduction to a new sound, Kara-Lis Coverdale’s latest effort, and her first in the past eight years, is a return to exquisite form.