Karen Vogt: Losing the Sea Remixes
Karen Vogt
Listeners coming to this self-released collection of remixes by Paris-based Australian artist Karen Vogt should probably first acquaint themselves with the recording that provided the source material, namely Losing the Sea, the album issued in February on Mare Nostrum. The move's advised not only because its six tracks feature Vogt's ethereal voice more prominently than the follow-up but because the releases feel complete when experienced together. Vogt gave the remixers carte blanche, and consequently the results are individuated by the participating artists whilst still retaining ties to the originals. As atmospheric as the originals are, the remixes are, as expected, even more so. (Note that while the two releases are available as separate digital purchases, the ninety-minute cassette version features the originals on one side and the remixes on the other.)
Up first is a remix of the title track by France Jobin, who also created a “Watching the Ninth Wave” makeover for the project. Each stretches out to approximately ten minutes, plangent guitar figures coupling with ethereal whooshes and convulsions in the generally becalmed former and organ-flooded streams punctuated by resonant chiming tones and Vogt's ghostly vocals in the latter. Not surprisingly, it's the latter component that proves most arresting, just as her voice does in so much of the material she releases. Captivating too is Jolanda Moletta's “Night Soughing” remix for the way it augments the original vocal with layers of her own to generate a haunting tapestry. Vogt's own remix of “Searching for Shoals” reduces it to the voice element, in this case softening it and turning the track into an entrancing choir-like performance.
A particularly elaborate makeover was fashioned for “Amidst the Sea Fog” by Claire Deak, who took the guitar part from the original and added to it field recordings, accordion, vibraphones, strings, and her hushed vocals. At certain moments, Deak's chamber-styled treatment calls to mind the similarly contemplative music of Gavin Bryars. Nudging the project towards industrial shoegaze territory, Lucy Adlington's “Stranded by the Spring Tide” treatment smolders in an electrified pool of raw guitar distortion, Vogt's vocals seething like a storm cloud around it. Rounding out the release are short sea recordings made for her by Guillaume Eymenier, which she's interspersed throughout the cassette. They provide a concrete document of the locations associated with the originals and remixes, and—as representative titles such as “Lapping Waves Against the Jetty,” “Watching the Waves from the Car Park,” and “Rain on Waves” show—are clear and direct in identifying their blustery points of origin.June 2023