Ani Glass: Phantasmagoria
(Self Release)
Award-winning, Cardiff-based artist Ani Glass unveils her new album Phantasmagoria, an inventive journey through her atmospheric synth-pop sound, bringing beautiful melodic, experimental musical ideas.
Opening with the transportive title track, the album quickly introduces a sonic world of ethereal, choral vocals and rich analogue electronics. Glass’ angelic, emotive vocals dance around the central tight drums and synth work, delivered in Welsh language as subtle field records give the track a cinematic flourish. Comparisons to Goldfrapp or Enya may help place the sound, but Glass’s voice and vision are distinct – a weaving of tradition, futurism, and personal truth.
Elsewhere on the album, Arfonio crafts a lo-fi soundscape, blending shimmering synths with bright, ’80s-inspired melodies, all grounded by Glass’s use of the Welsh language, which preserves the music’s alternative edge. On the bilingual track Now You Know, tight, boxy arpeggiators and precise lo-fi electronic drums provide a structured backdrop, while layered vocals infuse the otherwise robotic, angular textures with a sense of reflective melancholy, adding both fluidity and an organic humanity to the music, which shines through in the tracks short acapella break as overlapping vocal melodies are accompanied only by a singular viola.
Further into the 10 tracks, the angular and jerky The Dust Settled delivers one of the album’s most challenging moments, capturing a haunting, hymn-like quality. Kosel Yw’n Mor then takes a more ethereal, serene turn, with swelling, modulated synths, vocals reminiscent of Cocteau Twins, and a beat that could come straight from a Trip Hop classic.
Acwariwm blends live bass with boxy 808s and twinkling synths, drawing comparisons to Future Islands, while its layered vocal harmonies evoke the dreamlike sound of Bat For Lashes. Closing with the minimal, cinematic textures of Like Waves, the album concludes on a fittingly otherworldly and hypnotic note.
The record is steeped in Glass’s influences: the shimmering synths of Giorgio Moroder, the cinematic sweep of Vangelis, the ethereal textures of Jean-Michel Jarre, and the experimental elegance of Arthur Russell. Yet it is unmistakably stylistic and recognisable as Ani Glass with futuristic pop and an emotional weight. Her experience working with Martin Rushent (The Pipettes) and under the guidance of Andy McCluskey (OMD) shines through in the album’s strong melodic sensibility.
Sonically the album is a creative, at times challenging and others delicate and heartfelt journey through immersive and inventive electronic soundscapes, well throughout vocal layering and subtle placed field recording. Languages intertwine across the record – Cymraeg (Welsh), Kernewek (Cornish), and English, with the added dimension of British Sign Language in live performance which ultimately just added to Glass’s already radiant and mystical aura as an artist.
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All words by Simon Lucas-Hughes. More writing by Simon Lucas-Hughes can be found at his author’s archive.
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