(2023) Sandrayati - Safe Ground    


Review:
Sandrayati Fay was raised on the islands of Java and Bali Indonesia for most of her life. Though she studied Theatre at Emerson College in Boston, her music seems to be primarily inspired by her Filipino/Irish-American roots. She is a dreamer, a whisperer, a singer to the darkness. Safe Ground is Sandrayati’s debut release. Immediately, it grabs you with its tender, unassuming sound. Like the best of dream-pop, she floats and drifts, often sounding a bit bird-like. The rawness of her voice is masked by her hushed style. Instead of seeming like a freshman album, her songs seem much more mature. Simplicity is hard to master as it is; being barebones is almost as difficult as composing for a full orchestra and choir. However, Fay achieves great things with subtle echoes, instrumentals, and voice. The first three tracks (“Easy Quiet,” “Petals to the Fear,” and “New Dawn”) all work as a great introduction. They, perhaps, are the best on the album, maybe because they blend so well, move from one to another easily, freely. Fay is quiet and lets the melodies waft like butterflies (really). At its best, the guitar is similar to Joni Mitchell’s smooth strumming on Blue. Everything is shimmering, glowing, but not blindingly so. Peaceful may be an overused adjective, but these first tracks are all about stillness and calmness. The meditative quality is what wins your ears over. Then it continues to suck you in, a drowsy drowning in soft voices and guitar riffs. “Vast” is another standout. Once again, the leading guitar is gentle. It guides the song like a river taking along what comes into it. Then the voice enters—a leaf floating on the water. Then the strings add themselves—slowly joining the flow. It could be a phenomenal part of a soundtrack to a modern Jane Austen film. There is some of “Liz on Top of the World” by Dario Marianelli from Pride and Prejudice (2005) in it. Sandrayati’s mourning dove cooing works wonders and adds that just-right touch—a silky layer on top. The only problems arise with the last two tracks. After such beauty, such daydreaming, these two pieces just sort of wake you up abruptly. Her voice in “Bending Birch” is much more present in the composition. The balance seems off. At least, if you compare it to what came before. The backing instrumentals are pushed even further back in the piece. Her vocals are not dulled down, their edges a bit more pointed and biting—unpleasantly so. One can only wonder why she turned in this direction. Is she playing with musical direction this late in the game? Why? Her gentle dove’s coo comes out strained, almost forced. Again: why? The last track, “Holding Will Do,” follows this style. It’s almost a capella. And it just doesn’t work. Philip Glass’s Seventh Symphony has a third movement that uses space, uses silence to show a change in structure and storytelling. However, Safe Ground doesn’t need this shift. Maybe, one can conclude that she’s coming to the end of the album and is letting go of the little instrumentals she had. She’s baring her already bare sound. Thinning it out to just her voice. All things considered, the vast majority of the album is really terrific. She knows what she’s doing and she does it well. Safe Ground may be accused of playing it safe, but it works. It’s only when Sandrayati skins away one too many layers that things begin to be too transparent. And when she adds an Irish tone/style in tracks like “Segala Baru” and “Suara Dunia,” there is a freshness. Instead of taking away from her atmospheric enchantment, it enhances her set of musical tricks. She is not really like any other singer, probably because her influences and experiences are different. But she is certainly a part of that spacey folk/indie trend taking hold of many musicians, new and old. This debut comes as a surprise and it rewards the listener with a great experience, a chance to dream and float and flourish in the safety of an artist with an understanding of herself and what she wants to express. — spectrumculture


   


Track List:
01 - Easy Quiet
02 - Petals to the Fear
03 - New Dawn
04 - Suara Dunia
05 - Found
06 - Vast
07 - Smoke
08 - Segala Baru
09 - Bending Birch
10 - Holding Will Do


Media Report:
Genre: dream-pop, indie-folk
Country: Bali, Indonesia
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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