perila: irer dent

Answering a need for sincerity and intimacy in overwhelming times, Berlin's Perila makes her striking solo debut on sferic with a suite of sonic erotica, ASMR, and sensuous ambient environments. Born in St. Petersburg and based in Berlin, Alexandra Zakharenko, aka Perila, cut her teeth as in-house designer and programmer at the recently defunct Berlin Community Radio (BCR) before co-founding the Russian online station radio.syg.ma, which hosted one of her early productions on the SYGMATURE compilation in spring 2019. Perila is also founder of WET (Weird Erotic Tension), an online community exploring ideas of sonic sexuality in podcasts mixing spoken word, poetry, ASMR, and field recordings. Irer Dent stems directly from two WET podcasts, revolving readings of an erotic novel and a collection of poems by Nat Marcus and Inger Wold Lund, each set to absorbingly hypnagogic backdrops, and both accompanied by quietly seductive, original instrumental works. In five parts the album traces a filigree line between reality and fantasy in a more literal way than the label's previously all-instrumental releases. On "Nat's Poems" the voice of Nat Marcus regales a poetic account of Berlin nightlife woven with classic house lyrics from Rosie Gaines and Mr. White over 12 minutes of tumescent sub bass and phosphorescing pads. Where sensuality is implied on that piece, it's quietly explicit in the LP's other vocal piece "Sweat", which revolves around Inger Wold Lund recounting a dream about suppressed sexual desire in a hushed and unaffected manner amid a shimmering forcefield of spectral energy and meridian birdsong. Both pieces are complemented by extra subtle originals, including the barely-there, pink/purple hues of "Mouth Full of Tahini". Slipping very sweetly into sferic's liminal ambient space alongside Space Afrika, Echium, and Jake Muir, Irer Dent lends a distinct new shade of modern, adult, atmospheric emotion to the exploratory, Manchester-based label. RIYL: Félicia Atkinson, Huerco S, Leslie Winer. Mastered by Lawrence English at Negative Space, cut at Dubplates & Mastering.