Aio Rec. 
Pikara : Constellation (DK/S,2011)****'
While the first record of Pikara (which is Sara Johanne, the Danish/Swedish member of the band Susurrus Station) basically was a (really fine) singer-songwriter album, with some chamber-music ideas and arrangements with other instruments like guitars, this second album is much more an experiment with the idea of a chamber orchestra that is trapped in loops, musical-box like spheres, waltzes and echoing responses.
In fact, the territory becomes something rather new. We hear at first a rather minimal pop-minimalism sensibility, the use of deforming the sound of the cello electrically, with loops of echoing chamber-orchestra, as if the orchestra becomes a sort of loop-techno mood creation, elsewhere it is as if the idea of a musical box repeats a melody with a chamber orchestra, with picking guitar too. This almost happens like in a dream, with some improvisations layered over it, responding with violin or plucked themes, with bowed loops. There are moments where the prepared sound starts to find its own resonance, its inner dance waltz. In the last few tracks, the playing with the echoing rhythms really becomes more clearly a different way of thinking with the chamber orchestra, with a new experimental sensibility in this rhythm and sound, breathing a new rhythm.
I only don’t understand why this wasn’t released properly as a CD or LP. A digital release for me is only a half release while the quality is from such a high level of originality this deserves an artwork album that can be physically cherished, so please release this properly soon !
The album also featured J.Breeden on guitar, keyboard and vocals.
