- From Lucy's sound bath meditations to FIS and the club spiritualism of Aïsha Devi, it feels like mindfulness has a foothold in dance music. LAIR, the project of the classically trained vocalist, musician, sound healer and yoga teacher Laura Kilty, is among the growing number of electronic artists creating therapeutic music with profound or scared origins. LAIR's self-titled debut lands on Eomac's Eotrax label, which he launched last year with Temple Of The Jaguar, a conceptual piece of music and choreography he wrote and performed. Temple Of The Jaguar was still suited to the dance floor, but LAIR's productions are better served for reflection and contemplation.
Kilty's vocals permeate the record. It's a tool she layers up and modulates into haunting drones that seep out of the speakers to charge the air. "Invoke" becomes tense and threatening as Kilty's opening chants morph into sinister and inhuman expressions. "Meld" has more angelic connotations and is gripping from the off, while "Searching In Circles" is the most ethereal and ghoulish of the three. A chiming rattle gives it a bit of momentum, causing the gaseous reverb trails to swirl and dance. Rrose provides the record's other barely there pulse, transforming "Meld" into a gorgeous bit of psychotropic techno Rrose's beatless "Distillation" mix is just as good.
TracklistA1 Invoke
A2 Meld
A3 Meld (Rrose Remix)
B1 Searching in Circles
B2 Incant
B3 Meld (Rrose Distillation)