Angel Tape by Islaja

In many cases, our childhood memories are ones that stay with us. Even if subconsciously these early experiences influence our neural pathways, informing our future decisions and creative tastes. Finnish composer Islaja takes a deeply thoughtful approach to reflection in Angel Tape. This collection of experimental ambient pieces is inspired by the artist’s childhood memories of listening to her mother’s angel tape, a recording passed around in religious groups believed to have been the authentic and hallowed sound of angels singing hymns. Islaja describes being transfixed not by the songs themselves, but rather the ever-shifting overtones found in the static of distorted tape, evoking divinity in their delicacy and power to transform the original sounds. In this conceptual retrospection, she evokes the haunted and resplendent beauty of immaculate messengers with bright flourishes and deep, massive shifts layered over slight musical ideas. Mercurial synth undercurrents cast shadows on devout vocals and echoing organ ostinatos, melting from one profound, intricate sense of the divinity to the next. As it builds and the listener settles into these overtones, there grows an edge of intensity that provokes suspense, unease revealing an immense sense of scale. Angel Tape captures the catharsis that lies in growing up; some childhood experiences are deeply formative and feel huge upon reflection, pulling at your soul no matter how you’ve changed since. - Carrie