In Reverse by Melinda Bronstein

In Reverse is the debut solo album from artist Melinda Bronstein; ten brooding and ethereal songs of loss and conflict, hope and love - a realignment explored through the voice in its many contours. These intimate streams of consciousness open up a crepuscular world of repetition, submerged harmonies and occasional conversation; tense in places, but with the underlying warmth of hope.

Melinda is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, photographer and filmmaker currently living in Margate. She started as keyboardist and backing singer for Americana-tinged Absentee, before shifting to the drums for grungy Wet Paint, indie-rockers Singing Adams and many other bands in between including, in recent years, as percussionist and backing singer with The Leaf Library.

Her band Sea Glass, a collaboration with Matt from The Leaf Library, was her first outing as the main vocalist and songwriter, a situation that has opened the door to an outpouring of solo recordings. In Reverse was recorded at home between March 2020 and February 2021, a year of massive shifts, it is haunted by a very human introspection, an unease manifesting in buried loops, vocal drones and cyclical lyrics.

Purely intuitive in her approach, Melinda fully immersed herself in using improvisation to explore the voice as multi-faceted instrument, the poised hum of experimentation clear throughout the album. As she says, “I approach making music without any expectation, plan or idea of what will come out. The un-knowing is the exciting part which allows me to surprise myself. I follow a thread and keep weaving. Once a piece is finished I listen back as though it did not come from me” - a reminder that expression will find its way out by any means.

In Reverse is the eleventh release on The Leaf Library’s Objects Forever label, and is the first joint release with Detroit label Metaphysical Powers run by artist, writer and producer Kristen Gallerneaux and writer Bernie Brooks.

Melancholy atmospheres, vocal drone loops, casiotone, noises and toyses, magic in the mundane.
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