Waterflower - Balta Gaisma Album Review

Via thehypemagazine.com:

Sometimes you come across an artist who’s so original and so free to experiment with their music that it truly sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before. Meet Waterflower, a Latvian experimental pop artist who is truly pushing boundaries with her stunning new album ‘Balta Gaisma’, Latvian for White Light.

Opening with the ominous title track, one of the few tracks on the album sung completely in Latvian, the album starts you on your journey into Waterflowers world. Haunting vocals, trickling samples, quacky synths and thumping bass, honestly like nothing you’ve ever heard before. Known for using living plants as synthesisers, extracting their ‘natural melodies’, Waterflower’s level of experimentation is evident from the first note of the album, in fact, the first notes of the album do even sound as though they may be made by a plant.

Moving into the Bladerunner-esque opening track two ‘Of Shimmering Light And Living’, a track which takes on an almost tribal nature before the album comes to life on the recently released single ‘Find It!’. A cacophony of trancey synthesisers, ‘Find It’ see’s Waterflower showcase her Imogen Heap-comparable vocals with an effortless assurance and energy. A track about finding yourself and accepting who you are sexually, there’s a stirdy determination to this track, it feels like a stand for everything Waterflower believes in which gives it an unerring power. You can imagine Waterflower belting this out at a festival with one fist in the air.

Taking you on a journey through her experimental mind and her collection of punching drums, tight vocals and atmospheric synthesisers and dappled harp over the next six tracks, the track culminates in my personal highlight ‘love’, a beautiful 3.51 of atmospheric vocals, delicate piano and soft strings that float around you. A truly breathtaking finish to the album, the track has hymn like elements that give it a real impact.