“Strange to feel young,” admits electronic artist and producer Stefana Fratila on her latest record, Efermera. The Vancouver-based artist pairs shimmering synth sounds and heavy beats with her experimental sensibility on these ten tracks. A political science student who used the technique of time-stretching for a final project on colonialism in Canada, she seems interested in the way sounds and words can be reinterpreted by repeating them or slowing them down. “Tugging” is a standout track and a prime example of Fratila’s interest in turning around phrases. It’s a song about feeling young and out of place and yearning “to be swept into adult sleep.” She hauntingly recites, “recovering slowly here, recovery slowly being here… recovery slow, being here, slow.” Her words dissociate themselves from their original meanings and serve a unified purpose of lulling the listener into an enlightened trance.
