Germ in a Population of Buildings

• Track Listing

On her sophomore album "Germ in a Population of Buildings", upsammy moves through her surroundings with the

curiosity of a place-bending landscape architect. The album is rooted in her interest for ambiguous environments in

constant shift, and the feeling of discovering strange patterns in different ecosystems. Often, the Amsterdam-based

artist finds herself zooming in and out beyond a place's most recognizable surface features to inhabit the microscopic

and gigantic. Gathering field recordings and evocative environmental sounds, she shapes this source material into

vibrating electro-acoustic rhythms and unstable, psychedelic textures.

upsammy's debut album, 2020's critically-acclaimed "Zoom", was praised for it's careful reimagining of IDM, evolving

vignettes that nodded towards the dancefloor without being shackled to it's rigid set of rules. On "Germ in a Population

of Buildings" her process has evolved considerably; the skeletal trace of IDM is still present but it's been trapped in

amber, allowing her unique sonic landscape to develop organically. 'Being is a Stone' is a proof of concept in many

ways, layering upsammy's contorted voice in rickety patterns beneath a lattice of fragile rhythms and faintly melancholy

synths. It's never immediately obvious where the sounds are coming from - a hiccuping beat might be glass cracking

underfoot, and larger pulses could be wet concrete, rusted iron or bent plastic. As the sounds develop they morph into

each other, demolishing what came before and building on top of the ornamental wreckage.

On the dynamic 'Constructing', upsammy's sound design fluxes through hyperactive bass music structures, abstracting

expectations at every turn. Often her sounds are whisper quiet, rattling and vibrating until heavier masonry drops and

disrupts the structure. And when discernible rhythms subside into the background, like on the album's eerie title track,

they become almost illusory, morphing between the real world and the electronic. Upsammy's processed voice works

like a bridge between these realms, snaking between stark, whimsical melodies on 'Patterning', arching from AutoTuned

detachment into cooing, dreamy intimacy. By considering the harmonies between each location she's visited, upsammy

has been able to build a unique topology that's an uncanny digital amalgam of her lived experience. It's a thoughtful

alternative in an era more concerned with flatting the landscape than crumpling it and examining it's peaks and troughs.