Stefana Fratila has transformed from an an exquisitely varied singer-songwriter/full-time-teenager who gave out handmade CD-Rs at shows to a biologically superior lifeform who retained the voice of a woman but breathes via photosynthesis, hyperfluctuating matter between wave-like and wave-envious states to perform the functions of 20th-century musical instruments (you know, the ones still subject to entropy). Fratila’s earlier work was endearing in its prose-like lyrical content, and it employed some of the facets of the short-lived (anyone still have Animal Collective on their iPod Mini?!) “freak folk” genre well: twinkling guitars over mutant sampling and squelchy, whirly sounds, like trying to catch bits of audio from a cartoon in one of those money tornado jobs.
You’re not human / You think you know music? / How can you know music, Popular Boy?
Contrast last year’s Trista cu Frica with “Nero” and “Tugging” off Fratila’s newest tape, Efemera. The vaporous vocals pour over sketches of post-internet architecture, triggering the growth of bio-organic tissue where strings need to be tugged and drums need to be thumped. There are quieter moments — “Edmonbomb” borders on a ballad — and the album’s interludes provide self-deconstructing walls of percussion just in case you get comfortable. Interesting tidbit: according to Fratila, the songs on Efemera were tracked reel-to-reel years ago and recently remixed. The only logical explanation for this is Fratila truly is a time-traveling, shape-shifting lotus-eating cyborg existing both today, when Efemera drops on Trippy Tapes, and in some indeterminate time splice where Fratila’s psychic troubadour past combats her digital future.
(“floral” is my new favorite Bandcamp tag.)
• Stefana Fratila: https://stefanafratila.bandcamp.com
More about: Stefana Fratila
