Photo by Lena Shkoda, courtesy of Faten KanaanThe music of New York City electronics artist Faten Kanaan is the sound I’d want to hear if I was an unbaptized baby in purgatory. It’s soothing and heavy and implies that that there’s a paradise just around the corner. I’m Jewish and intellectually lazy, so I may be getting my draconian theology a little jenky, but I’m saying Faten’s songs are lovely and otherworldly, and I like them very much. With her self-titled project, she interweaves minimal synth 70s horror vibes with cinematic waves of a more romantic variety. On her most recent EP (after 2013’s single, “The Rises”), she makes a soundscape for a movie shot of angels with new wave hairdos descending to planet Earth. It’s a subtle sound that could easily fade into the background in less capable hands, but Kanaan is working ably within a tradition that encompasses both early synth visionaries and Stereolab or Broadcast, so the hits, as it were, keep coming.“When I had been a teen I didn't know what sequencers and arpeggiators were, so I thought industrial/no wave music synth parts were all played manually,” she says. “I liked that music and taught myself to play like that, relying on classical techniques. I don't use any sequencers nor arpeggiators, I play all the parts by hand and loop them live.”Faten Kanaan has a new video for “Planet 898/Circle Is Drawn” (made with Jessie Rose Vala) named after Doctor of The Church Hildegard von Bingen where, as the song soars past you, the viewer is invited to do as all lonely deities do; count clouds, mountains, etc., feel the wind through the grains like a vintage synth when you come down. You know, usual lonely god stuff. The vocals don’t come in ‘til the two-minute mark and, like our loved one’s time on Earth, they’re over before you know it. Enjoy!Zachary Lipez loves noise and loves New York. Follow him on Twitter.
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