PERILA - The Air Outside Feels Crazy Right Now

From the very start, the work of Perila, the young Russian artist now based in Berlin, has been as gentle as it is uncompromising. “ The Air Outside Feels Crazy Right Now” is a collection of tracks recorded between 2021 and 2023, lost in visions of frozen lands and dormant forests, wrapped in an aura of solitude lived with the serenity of someone who has found refuge among the trees. A kind of lost sister to Grouper, she moves through languid, evanescent chords, smudged basslines and a thin voice poised between chant and ASMR whisper.

Of folk what remains is more an echo than a structure: the record is built mainly around guitar and voice, with only occasional electronic incursions. The light piano touch of “Barefeeter” drifts over distant, contemplative vocal melodies, while “Gooshy” surprises with dissonant strumming that quivers around dissociated vocal phrasing, almost like an ethereal Jandek. “Fossil” follows the same logic without resorting to physical instruments, with pads that seep slowly beneath a whispered vocal. Nature recoded into digital language, fusing guitar and laptop into a single breath.

The only fragments harking back to psychedelic tradition are the bass and electric guitar of “Gooshy”, which surface like raw material in an otherwise ethereal landscape. The record follows a clearer path than her better-known works: there's no trace here of mystical turbulence or unsettling shadows. Tension dissolves into stillness, into a secret dialogue between the self and an untouched ecosystem. The journey recalls the otherworldly experience of Ayami Suzuki, but also the image of a Vashti Bunyan running her fingers over the keys of a forgotten piano in an abandoned house (“Unseen”). Thirty-three minutes that leave behind the feeling of a long wait.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

25/04/2025