What does Jolanda Moletta and Karen Vogt sound like?

Ambient orchestrations using only two voices.

The review of ‘Sea-swallowed Wands’ by Jolanda Moletta and Karen Vogt

Rarely has an album provided such levity, space, and ethereal airiness as this. ‘Sea-swallowed Wands’ is a sumptuous merger of two ambient vocalists. Jolanda Moletta and Karen Vogt use their voices in this album like painters use their brushes, sweeping their voices like shimmering hues on a sunny day. You can taste the aural clouds and smell the grassy mountainsides in this most serene of albums.

It is difficult to pull apart one song from another across the 40-minute runtime. The best I can do is describe how Jolanda and Karen use their voices like an orchestra. There is a six-minute track called ‘Body in the shadows, face in the light’ which showcases their approach perfectly. One voice trails in, smudged into a hazy ethereal glow. It lilts into a note, holds it, and then softly leans out just as the next note slides in. By turning voices into synths, other tracks may hold a key or a shivering or shimmering note, but often it’s in service of a wider hue or loop that hypnotises the listener into calm. Very little bass is used. Instead, vocals may shift speed or pitch slightly to create a voicegaze wall of sound. It echoes out empty into the spacious void, making it an entrancing listen.

In ‘Time and Tide’, we swap the speed of vocal loops subtly to stretch time and warp it. ‘Through the portal’ is an icy, synth-like ambience from a deeply cold place. You can just make out that the sound started as a vocal sample, but it’s difficult to unpick it from the shrill, icy synth that’s been created. ‘Whispers in the sand’ does away with a lot of the echoing reverb tricks initially. and instead time stretches single “aah” notes. Breathe work creates a lot of the atmospheric textures here and pops up across the album. The breathing isn’t quite forming a rhythm, but instead washes over the meditative vocals of Jolanda and Karen like wind in the desert. Sizzling hisses create waves for ‘Hydroelectric’, whilst closing tracks ‘Moonwater’ and ‘Underwater forest’ add in some field recordings of water to create alien worlds for the vocals to glide over.

Experimental in every way, ‘Sea-swallowed Wands’ is an imaginative trip into hidden worlds and vibrant skies. Both Jolanda Moletta and Karen Vogt have beautiful voices and a knack for creating the softest sounds. Combining those skills through collaborative improvisation and sound design has created possibly the most tranquil vocal album of the year. Perfect for the heat of summer.

Recommended track: Body in the shadows, face in the light

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