Kara-Lis Coverdale has a CV as confounding as it is impressive. For many years, the classically trained pianist and composer split her time between soundtracking local church sermons in Montreal and performing in international concert halls. Meanwhile, she became entrenched in the electronic music world, joining forces with producers such as Tim Hecker, Actress and Caribou. As such, her music is hard to pin down, slinking somewhere between modern classical and electronic, with shades of jazz and new age, too. But for all its dimensions, nor is the Montreal-based musician’s sound particularly challenging: her new album – her first in eight years – is a gentle listen, made up of short, dreamy compositions that are light and quietly ecstatic.
Despite the modest track lengths – 2017’s Grafts was made up of three extended parts – From Where You Came is an exercise in spaciousness. Built from strings, brass, keys, synthesisers and wind instruments, the arrangements are slow and sparse, with each song sighing softly to a close. It’s exciting, then, when a stirring motif comes in – something Coverdale is really good at. On standout Flickers in the Air at Night, a spritely melody bubbles through a wash of atmospheric synths and strings; Daze perfectly captures a feeling of sweet melancholy in its gorgeous Balearic-ready woodwind trills. Offload Flip, the most straight-up electronic track on the record, takes things a little deeper with its distorted, metallic drum loop that occasionally strays off beat.
