press

Belgium-based sound artist Florence Cats makes miniature masterpieces that are no less grand because of their small scale. Stately bits of Debussy float by, snippets of theremin hover, and Cats’ gentle, humming voice settles and soothes. On Shell I, we get recordings of wind and waves, storms and leaves, with no sense of what’s coming next. Brief snatches of coastal scenes sit next to long meditations on piano as if the sounds of nature and of music are not only related, but interdependent. Listening to the album is like flipping through a sketchbook—partially realized scenes and delicate tracings gain meaning through juxtaposition, eventually forming a portrait of the artist herself.