Review Summary: It’s peaceful here.
Serene, engrossing, spacious. These words try to capture protoU’s solo debut,
Lost Here. Sasha Cats (protoU) made her first appearance on Cryo Chamber with dark ambient artist Dronny Darko. Their collaborative effort,
Earth Songs, journeyed across the universe’s timeline. It began with the big bang and concluded with leaving earth. Bold in its concept, the record showcased droning soundscapes. A handful of artists on the Cryo Chamber label employ droning atmospheres, but protoU’s style possesses distinctive tones. These are salient when comparing
Earth Songs to Dronny Darko’s
Neuroplasticity or
Outer Tehom. Darko’s compositions are menacing and seethe black bile. protoU’s invite you to wander among shapeless realms. In
Lost Here, protoU encourages you to lose yourself in her dream and drift across its tundra.
Lost Here envelops. Each composition bellows droning hums. They create the backdrops and cascade solitude behind microtonal shifts. Field recordings echo from the dream’s asphalt architecture. “Unreal Symbols” embraces an uplifting ambience. Wisps of static permeate its hopeful atmosphere as piano keys chirp and string listeners along quiet avenues. Its mellow drone shapeshifts and synths crackle beyond isolated whirs. The record’s subtleties texture its churning drones and produce a swirling, timeless void. Songs blend together, inducing a trance. The thrumming bass on “Static Memories” or the warm, shimmering vibrations in “Lost Here” structure an amorphous and deep journey.
Lost Here’s hypnotic tone may drag some listeners through homogeneous soundscapes, leaving a dull impression, but it subsumes peace and loneliness under a captivating haze. It’s a dream you wish to return to each time you fall asleep.
