PILLBERT - Memoria (Squama) [Ambient Pop]

*** This blog post first appeared in TSMM's February 9th Newsletter, where you can get all the tips (and more) first ***

Striking debut albums are few and far between but Lilian Mikorey has just released one. A young German girl from Munich, she moved to London from her Munich home aged just twenty years old. Imagine the separation from friends and family at such a formative age, compounded by landing in the belly of such an unforgiving urban beast. Even I waited until I was twenty two before ditching small town UK for Amsterdam thirty odd years ago.

Naturally the concept of home raised its head during the transition, and luckily for us she decided to soundtrack her experiences and thoughts. With a photo of a Munich house as a reference, she set about putting her already considerable Ableton production skills to good use. She recorded the sounds of her collected knick-knacks, grabbed field recordings of London life and its weather alongside her self taught guitar strumming. Distinctive sound palette sorted she then artfully fused them with machine made ambient noise to provide some sonic beds on which to rest her, at times translucent, musings on upheaval, recalibration, discovery, excitement, trepidation, wonder, loneliness, growth, insecurity, resilience and joy.

The result is a gently evolving ambient album that charts her personal growth and emotional journey. The album opens with those wafer thin vocals and the ambient pop vibes of “I Don’t Feel No Fear”, before descending into uneasier, more experimental sounds on “Chello, My Girl”, which sounds like a mild panic attack. The ambient folk of “Pillar” soon calms the nerves again though with her gentle voice beckoning you closer for comfort, both hers and yours.

“Picture of a House” is a restless but not fidgety affair, the often hard to discern spoken words riding a still swirling cocktail of effected harmonica, chopped vocal samples, guitar snippets and public transportation sounds. Next up is the almost normal, piano led singer songwriter endeavour of “Tiny Dancer”, and due to its stripped back production, also our first real chance to explore her sweet, innocent sounding vocal tones. The album then melts into similarly intimate ambient folk, the field recordings mostly staying a respectful distance, whilst the voice elevating guitar and lonesome harmonica nudge her tale within earshot, giving us further opportunity for psychological evaluation, and I’m happy to report she’s more than alright.

I’m sure Mikorey was, and probably still is, on an emotional rollercoaster and the uneasier, instrumental “Room Full of Doubt” sounds like “one of those days”, though not insurmountably so, and the uncertainty is well articulated, despite the absence of words. The final three tracks see Pillbert grow in assurance, it sounds like friends were found, shyness fought - her voice butting into the compositions rather than hiding behind them, and the sounds holding their head that bit higher as transport routes became familiar, strange faces less threatening and numbers added to her phone.

It must have been quite an experience. It’s certainly a great listen.

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Playlist Companion

Find Pillbert in the Ambient Pop Playlist.