The last time we've heard of Canadian artist Joanne Pollock was through the electronic duo, Poemss, of which she was a part alongside Aaron Funk, better known as Venetian Snares. Poemss' only album so far was released in 2014 via Planet Mu Records to a generally warm response.
Fast forward three years later, and again on Planet Mu Joanne Pollock has just released her first solo album, Stranger, an assemblage of unusual and imaginative electronic pop songs which vary between melodiousness and noisiness, bounded by Pollock's eminent vocal abilities.
"What happens when we push up against that which contains us?" asks the artist herself. "By distorting the mirror, we may become plastic. When the comfort of familiarity is stripped away, it can feel as though we become a stranger in our own bodies. Is it through embracing the Stranger that we discover ourselves? Stranger explores the multiplicities of selfhood - what defines us, where the boundaries lie."
Between oddity and ethereality Pollock's skillful voice and dreamlike electronic textures provide each other balance and pliability as they interlace, bounded by conspicuous, unavoidable tendencies towards lyricism and experimentation.
Midway through the album's ten track's, Expect Me stands as an accurate representation of Pollock's exploratory dark pop ingenuity.
Listen below...
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