Tremosphere - Saturated Solace

Released: May 16

As the sister band to the prolific Bipolar Explorer, you might expect a bit of overlap between the two projects. And while you would be correct, there’s a certain quality to Tremosphere that just makes it feels so much more haunting. For me, it’s the intensified focus on the vocals provided by Sylvia Solanas that set the tone of this album in particular. Each track has a slow and stretched vibe that comes across as incredibly hypnotic. The washed out guitars provided by Michael here lend support to the haunting vocals in way that is vaguely reminiscent of the slow alt-rock of the early 90s but with a more sedate vibe and emotional impact. 

While much of the album is guitar and vocal-driven, there’s quite a few tracks here that branch out into strange soundscapes, with one of my personal favorites being “Un Message.” The guitar takes a backseat entirely, just providing a bit of soft strumming in the background, while the vocals and unusual looping samples carry the weight of the song. The vocal most often feels more like spoken word with the gentle harmonizations coming up near the end, giving ghostly auras as the soft sounds around it continue. I love the atmosphere of this track as it just feels somber without being sad and just a purely entrancing vibe. 

The album likes to bounce around between being more guitar-driven and more sample or synth oriented. Either way, Solanas’ haunting vocals make their presence known on every track. I think the last track is another one of my favorites, both because it is so synth-heavy and just how raw and present the vocals feel here. In many other cases, they are gelled together with the rest of the arrangement. But here they feel so close and forward, leading the song while the other very sparse elements follow along. It’s almost spooky at times but wonderfully so.