Turkist darkwave artist aux animaux (currently living in Sweden) is back with a six-track EP entitled Hydesville Episode. If you want to know more about her, a couple of years ago we interview her and also reviewed her previous EP Stockholm Synthrome. That was her second release after Black Holes from 2018. Hydesville Episode has been mastered by Doruk Öztürkcan from She Past Away and you can listen and buy it on the artist’s bandcamp. Remember that 60 seks are only 5,59 euros.
aux animaux leaves her comfort zone to create this quite original EP where she captures her feelings during the pandemic fusing them with her love for horror movies making a peculiar”hauntwave” really captivating. The album has been named after the fourth chapter of Arthur Conan Doyle’s book The History of Spiritualism, where we can find the story of the Fox sisters, who played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism in the second half of the 19th century. The EP works as a soundtrack for a non-existent film and that can be noticed in its primordial instrumental nature.
The EP starts with the sounds of the theremin, one of aux animaux’s signature instrument, already creating a terrifying atmosphere. Soon appears the ghostly voice of the Turkish artist, making “Omen” a surprising composition. The terror references are present from the very beginning as the track takes its name from the 1976 classic flick. “Sorcerer” keeps giving us goosebumps with its continuous feeling of danger. Here, aux animaux declaims as if she were completing a ritual. In “Temptation” we have again the theremin in the spotlight, together with some terrifying voices. The short and instrumental title track makes me think of modern horror movies such as The Witch or Heriditary, as it keeps the feeling of threat but without making it evident. “Deconstruct” presents samples in French of Jacques Derrida’s poem “Futur et avenir” and a detachable use of the theremin.
“Levitation” puts an end to the EP as the song from the final credits of a movie. The End has appeared on the screen and we are leaving the theatre, going down the stairs, taking some minutes to listen to what it’s still coming from the speakers.
