Ulla E. Strauss, whose music always oscillates between weightlessness and delicacy, once again expands the field of contemplative dreaming with her new album Hometown Girl. Released for the first time under the pseudonym U.e. and on the new label 28912, the artist remains true to her electro-acoustic basic mood, but this time emphasizes a purely acoustic sound palette. The result is an unusually tangible depth – you can hear your fingers gliding over the strings, feel the rooms, the ceiling heights, the reverberation of a voice that sometimes flickers indistinctly and then disappears again.
The tracks are like miniature landscapes in speckles – torn between melancholy and hope, but always in the familiar company of U.e.. »Good Morning« greets the listener with a somewhat frayed welcome, »Froggy Explorer« captures shreds of guitar in digital space until they surface one last time in »Mute« before disappearing into the shadows. The compact silence that Hometown Girl conjures is the result of acoustic sound sculptures that neither explain themselves nor impose themselves. There is no trace of modesty – U.e. proves once again that less really is more.
