U.E. - Hometown Girl

There are records that surface like faded photographs forgotten in an attic, and "Hometown Girl" is one of them. The title seems to evoke a young woman's return to the place where it all began: she reopens the front door, climbs up to the attic, rediscovers old family tapes. These aren't finished songs, but seemingly disconnected sonic notes. U.e. is the new alias of Ulla Straus, already known for "Big Room" and "Tumbling Towards A Wall", where ambient dub and glitch intertwined with intimate storytelling. Here the soundscape becomes hushed, almost ambient pop: guitars, grainy pianos, winds and percussion handled with the care of someone walking along the edge of a memory.

The record conjures a wintry, early-morning atmosphere. But also the muffled sounds of a sleeping house, the distant whispers of a tired gramophone, the slow breath of chamber jazz. A cloud of emotional electronica that doesn't demand attention but earns it gently, with a sense of peace that fades into nostalgia. The glitches don't break anything, but fill in the silences; they settle onto a carpet of abandoned music boxes. The guitars seem to come from the next room, like memories making themselves heard. Like a latter-day Khonnor, glimpses open up like bittersweet memories, leaving us with the aftertaste of a happiness we never quite managed to recognize.

"Hometown Girl" is a timid caress, lost somewhere between acoustic instruments and synthetic details: suspended clarinets, drums barely touched as if in a sleepless jazz ensemble, digital manipulations. The ethereal sound of an emptied house, the one belonging to rooms where someone has lived and suffered in silence; but also the company of a friend who stays close through the murkiest nights. In the end, what remains is the impression of an embrace: warm, hesitant, the kind given by someone who isn't quite sure how to hold you but tries anyway.

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30/04/2025