*In process of stocking* Georgian artist Ani Zakareisvili layers crackly Basinski-esque piano loops with crunch-fried vocal snippets on her charming debut release. Proper hypnagogic gear for fans of Harold Budd, Erik Satie, or The Caretaker.
Over the last few decades, the romantic piano music of the not-so-distant past has slipped into a repetitive role, selling us everything from lifestyles and cars to coffee and package vacations. Its usage in cinema has been ubiquitous, so Zakareisvili's "Fallin" immediately sounds familiar - the lilting fin de siècle-style snippets take us back not to the Paris boulevards and coffee shops but flickering movie screens and TV interludes. It's an effect that's purposeful, Zakareisvili uses these Proustian memes to help us ruminate on the nature of love - stuttered and distorted dialog chops from a 1982 Eartha Kitt interview help hammer in that fact.
'Fallin' isn't far from Leyland James Kirby's hallowed work as The Caretaker (imagine if he'd been watching romantic French movies instead of "The Shining"), or William Basinski's "The Disintegration Loops". Where Zakareisvili differs is in the emotional content, her gestures are more about the nature of musical manipulation and the cultural expectations we project onto the piano.