OTOS by Felicie Bazelaire

Perception holds each of us in solitary confinement, preventing us from fully sharing experiences with others, alienating us, especially when our perceptions get labeled as disordered or deficient. For experimental sound artist Felicie Bazelaire, their new album OTOS provides them with the space to explore their supposedly disordered perception, showing us the musical flavor of their silence. Bazelaire suffers from otosclerosis, a condition of the ear that results in gradual hearing loss, dizziness, and tinnitus. As the condition progresses, internal bodily sounds intrude further on the ear’s experience of the outside world, mixing heartbeats and bloodflows in with the existing screeches and growls of hearing loss. Rather than suffering from this new paradigm, Bazelaire reads these sounds as a form of music made uniquely for them, with heartbeats serving as a compelling, organic rhythmic staple and tinnitus providing complex harmonies, gliding gracefully between tension and release. On this album, we gain the rare privilege of departing our own narrow perspectives, experiencing singular, overlapping orchestral strings as tinnitus rings and deep, persistent percussion as heartbeats as we’re invited to listen in on a concert for one.