London-based electronic musician and AV artist, Halina Rice, is best known for her vivid and electric style, creating ambient and experimental dance music from a range of evocative and melancholic soundscapes. Her 2017 album REDUX saw Rice reach critical acclaim, with her music being described as “sublime and infectious by Electronic Sound. Her new album ELISION released via Injazero Records uses multiple effects and sampling to create original and unique sounds. With Injazero records being a design-conscious label from Istanbul and London with artists such as C. Diab, Heinali, KMRU, Matt Emery and Hinako Omori, there’s no surprise to see Halina Rice’s music being a perfect match for their sound.
Ranging from experimental to IDM, the ten tracks across the album represent a breadth of styles and pace. Kicking the album off with “Hey”, it’s easy to see at first listening that this track is about boundary-breaking experimental sounds. Using audio tools to morph sound together to help bring her sonic vision to life. With rolling synth sounds and distant harmonizing vocals, it packs together sounds that make you think twice about underground music. The LP’s title track “Elision” further incorporates her vision of utilizing music, art and technology. The track fuses natural and analog sounds with unrealistic treatments, “The idea is to evoke places that don’t exist – like a surreal parallel world,” says Rice. Throughout, tracks such as “THIRD” and “HELIX” demonstrate her use of voice and synths to carefully mold together luscious sonics.
This release isn’t the first experience of Rice’s immaculate creative vision. In 2020, she launched the NEW WORLDS project – where each release comprised both music and the creation of a virtual environment in which Rice performed live as a digital projection. As a producer of electronic music working with an international team of visuals artists, Rice has consistently strived to create increasingly immersive AV environments in which to envelop her listeners. Speaking on her creative vision, Halina Rice writes “In one sense, immersive is a technical description of how I might present sound or projections, but from an emotive stance, it’s more about the desire to create an experience for the audience which takes them outside of the day to day. I try to create tracks which evoke an emotion that translates to the listener.”
ELISION is out now on all streaming platforms.
