"Immersed Sensibilities"
"Immersed Sensibilities" is Antonina Car's debut LP album released under the American label Time Released Sound. Working on the album, the artist spent half a year in seclusion, in her home studio, composing and recording practically every day. That way, she could focus on ideas and experiment with all available resources. At first, the album was intended to be instrumental. During the composition process, the artist arranged subsequent layers of sound by humming, however, she began to perceive the voice as another instrument. Antonina used the violin, baritone violin, cello, keyboards, and synthesizers for the recordings. She recorded all these instruments herself. The last track includes a flute and a clarinet played by a composer from Malaysia - Zurfahani Batrisya.
“Phenomenons and events occurring in nature are the ultimate source of metaphors for every human condition. Nature perfectly shows us its strength and vulnerability, poetically flawless in its beauty and ferocity. Immersed Sensibilities is an attempt to transcribe feelings, stories, and events into a synthetic, self-contained sonic universe. It's a reflection of the intensity with which humans often imagine their emotional presence matters.” - Antonina Car
In the sounds, song titles, and original lyrics, the artist repeatedly refers to the idea of fluidity and ambivalence as a form of understanding and accepting transitional states in life. According to her, fervency is an emotional state that reflects the transfigurative character of nature. Antonina's works introduce the listener to a specific sonic "biosphere" in which we hear synthetic "beings", invented, and pictured by the imagination. The fragments with the voice are a reference to the listener's consciousness because the words are the only recognizable element - reminiscent of human reality.
The sounds in the tracks are electronically processed. Fragments that resemble field recordings (wind, thunder, rustling) are designed entirely digitally. The last piece on the album is a form of a manifesto. This is the only song in which the artist does not play string instruments. Instead, she focuses on the narrative, and this time a real field recording appears in the song - subtle footsteps on the forest ground. The song correlates with the artist's journey and it’s a form of a letter written to oneself. It combines a disorderly and uncertain beginning with a resolved yet subdued ending.
"Spontan_06 half-improvised concert at Kolonii Artystów"
20min electroacoustic composition for violin and electronics performed live at a concert venue in Gdańsk
"Flautando"
Flautando is a neo-classical and post-minimalistic music track. The single was composed entirely by the pair and was mixed and mastered by Polish sound engineer, Karol Wiśniewski. Despite the distance between Fahani and Antonina (Malaysia - Poland), they completed the entire production remotely.
The concept behind this track is to create a genuine feeling of flow and depth, bringing the listeners an unhurried feeling of integrity with rhythms and structures played by real instruments. With Antonina on the violin and Fahani on the flute, this paired to an intertwined melody and later again diverge and play individual parts.
"Biosphere"
Short violin & viola improvisation video capturing my recording process