Chloë Sobek – Apotropaic [LP]

"NM presents the debut LP from Melbourne/Naarm soloist and electronic composer Chloë Sobek.

Whilst gripping stages and audiences alongside much of Australia's most adventurous composers and performers over the past 2 years, 'Apotropaic' appears following a series of self-released single track hints via her bandcamp. Sobek instantly soars to characterise her arresting first statement, flitting between sound collage as a looming vaporous threat, restless swathes of electronic pointillism and her unmistakable pneumatic rain of extended/effected solo violone performance. Curiously, Sobek's instrument is a custom built violone; ostensibly a dynamic, spectral six-stringed baroque variation on the instrument we know today as double bass.

Wrenching the instrument for absurdist thrills and atonal mystique, Sobek's designs are a puzzle for the listener attempting to grasp the exact tone of 'Apotropaic'. An obsession with personal hidden meaning firmly buoys her sensibility when selecting a sound, inevitably spinning a labyrinthine cosmos that is at once both acutely figurative and intimately informed by Sobek's notions of the experiential.

Recorded and mixed by Chloë Sobek and Vijay Thillaimuthu."

Nice Music, 2023