- Cosmic synth-pop-techno-disco that lives up to Erol Alkan's Phantasy Sound legacy.
- Generally speaking, using one's consciousness to ponder the mystery of consciousness is like attempting to put out a fire with more fire. Recent attempts to solve the unsolvable have culminated in quantum mind theory—the notion that consciousness is actually just a type of matter. In short, the same way there's electrically neutral matter and electrically charged matter, there is insentient matter and sentient matter. To Daniela Caldellas, AKA Terr, this hypothesis has become a guiding principle for making music. "I believe that ideas are waves of energy flowing through the cosmos and artists are like antennas," she told Electronic Groove. "I try to keep myself and my senses wide open to welcome them."
Even though her philosophies are future-facing, when it comes to her sound (she's a self-professed student of innovators like Wendy Carlos and Phil Oakey) and the spirit of science fiction embedded in it—her alias comes from the 1973 French sci-fi classic Fantastic Planet—Caldellas is very much a musical historian. On her astral voyage of a debut, Consciousness As A State of Matter, the Berlin-based, Brazil-born artist employs a mix of vintage and modern gear to cook up a cosmic and cathartic serving of glitzy electro-pop, astral synthwave and timeless Moroder-esque disco. "Tales Of Devotion" sounds like a swooning, simmering take on "I Feel Love," while "Energy Sync" evokes both Kraftwerk and Kate Bush, blurring outré vocals and throbbing modulation. "It feels so nice / When we sync our energy," Caldellas sings, before dazzling synth stabs punctuate the mix as if marking the consummation of consciousness.
The LP is split neatly in half, with the first featuring tracks like the nocturnal romp "Only For Tonight," feeling light and playful. Terr robotically narrates the ups and downs of modern dating—"Swipe left, swipe right / This is only for tonight"—and processed vocal samples pop up like gasps of artificial pleasure. She incorporates and reinterprets Brazilian tropicália music with sporadic bursts of live percussion and restless keyboard playing, adding a real-world flair to her otherwise sci-fi soundscapes.
On "Wings Of Time" and "Time Crystal," she begins cultivating a more urgent dance floor atmosphere as things begin a gradual transition to darker and more nebulous tones, as she says goodbye to her lover: "You can fly away / I will be okay." The songwriting becomes introspective on a metaphysical level, as Caldallas probes the nature of the mind over brooding electronics, with self-actualisation replacing romance as the prevailing theme.
"Layers" is a spoken-word meditation that interrogates the personas and layers of ego we use to mask our true selves, a spellbinding mixture of dance floor energy and thoughtful introspection. "Imagination" peels back the layers of mind even further, slowing the pace and peeking beyond the veil of this life into the next one: "Life is so complete / When you find out where you go," Caldellas affirms, somewhat mysteriously, over the most gorgeous riff on the LP.
In another interview, Caldellas spoke on the beauty of modular synthesis and how it transmutes "electricity into music." The results mirror the process: dizzying basslines and gurgling arpeggios run like electricity coursing through wire, energising these life-affirming cuts with forward motion. Her Nouvelle Vague-style vocals add a tantalising lure, using romantic breakbeat and mutant electro to turn melancholy into transcendence and codependency into self-actualisation almost like alchemy. Maybe consciousness is matter after all.
Tracklist01. Tale Of Devotion (Sunny Version)
02. Only For Tonight
03. Warp Drive
04. Energy Sync
05. Time Crystal
06. Wings Of Time
07. Layers
08. I Am Here You Are There
09. Imagination
10. Final Dance feat. Coloray
11. States Of Mind