The six tracks of Elisa Luu’s Enchanting Gaze are mosaics made of fractures. Each piece is more than cohesive enough to stand as a composition, like the string-inflected “Sabadilla,” with which the collection opens, or the pluck’n’drone of closing track “Bro…” — but within each piece the source segments stand sturdily alone, so much so that the compositions themselves threaten to fall apart, to fall into parts. This isn’t a criticism. Quite the contrary, it’s the very solidity of the source material from which Enchanting Gaze is constructed that gives it strength. Luu refers to the work as “post-ambient.” Others might cite minimalism, whose rigor the work reflects, event if it favors tonal phrasings and occasional rhythmic whimsy, as on the creakily industrial “B.P.M.,” over overt patterning. This is a phenomenal set.
Album originally posted mid-November 2014 at elisaluu.bandcamp.com. More from Luu, who is based in Rome, Italy, at soundcloud.com/elisa-luu, elisaluu.bandcamp.com, and hiddenshoal.com.