Alina Kalancea is a Romanian sound artist and composer based in Modena, Italy.
With flickering soundscapes and deep basses of overwhelming power, or subtle water-dropping frequencies taken over by eerie waves and dark atmospheres, her unique live performances reveal a deep passion for sounds and a conceptual introspection.
Her studio work also has a touch of live performance, proper of Buchla’s instruments, bringing something unexpected and uncertain in her compositions, which together with her methodical and disciplined approach, create a paradoxical felt sense.
What is certain is the compactness of her compositions, the close interrelatedness of all sounds and textures, and the power of the concept behind her presentations. In her expressive debut album, The 5th Apple, the raw force and intuition of the conceptual content is matched with a highly crafted and precise sound composition, creating a closed space, a bounded freedom, reflected in lyrics and composition.
Deep and pulsating reverberations, unsettling strings, sharp sounds, bass pulses and hypnotic loops speak the same language as the deep and unsettling poetics of this multitalented artist, revealing a subtle treatment of all elements.
Her mastery of many different instruments and aspects of sound has made her extremely versatile. In her upcoming second album, Impedance, she covers an impressively wide range of sonic expressions, with evolving textures and accelerating rhythmical structures, repetitions, modulated voices, hypnotic and crackling waves and sudden breaks that immerse us in powerful and mind-altering soundscapes.
The richness of the sonic experience Alina exposes us to is related in some indescribable way to her prowess interweaving textures with discrete elements, her sensitivity and intuition to sound composition and an unknown ability of connecting all sonic elements of the composition though secret passages and hidden doors.
Her powerful rhythmic sequences, dark ambience, heart-beating frequencies and hypnotic loops are paradoxically encapsulated in carefully crafted sound structures and designs. Every element is related, is speaking to each other, in subtle dialectical compositions. Receding atmospheres and revelatory collapses into silence take us over, altering all boundaries and expectations. Some ultimate paradox of spontaneity and total command is working here, some randomness under control, some certain uncertainty.
Alina Kalancea has studied sound design and synthesis with Enrico Cossimi and collaborated with producer Alex Gámez, and artists Julia Kent and Raven Bush.
Her second album Impedance is out from February 2021, released by Important Records.