“Paravane” is a vessel for Laura Wolf’s prodigious imagination

“Paravane” is taken from Laura Wolf‘s new Artifacts, out November 12 via Whatever’s Clever Record.

Cellist and art-pop Laura Wolf is readying the release of her new EP Artifacts. We recently wrote about her previous single “Cross Your Mind”, a kaleidoscopic outburst of pop creativity. After only a handful of singles, Wolf has become one of the most interesting up-and-coming figures in art pop. She’s certainly one of the most unique. She combines her training as a classical musician with her love for modern electronic production to come up with cutting-edge experiments in instrumentation. In Wolf’s songs, a cello can end up sounding like a synth and shredded pieces of vocals can constitute a bassline.

Laura Wolf has now released the latest single off Artifacts, “Paravane”. It follows the same guidelines as “Cross Your Mind”, which is to say that it follows no guidelines at all. There is a hyperpop influence to the electronic backbone of the song, though Wolf’s vocals, absent of all artifice, pull in a different direction. The song’s hook comes not as a synth line or a vocal melody but in the form of an eerie sound somewhere in-between a ghostly whisper and the singing of a glass rubbed with a wet finger. At times, “Paravane” sounds like it’s entirely comprised of chopped-up parts of different songs, united only by Wolf’s prodigious imagination. “Paravane” is the sort of song that keeps you replaying it endless times until you have uncovered every little secret. Wolf’s genius resides in that such a moment never arrives; there is always a reason to go back to her songs.