Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch – “Strelka” (audio) (premiere)

French pianist and composer Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch is set to release her debut album Like Water Through the Sand 13 November on 139701, the experimental arm of the esteemed UK record label FatCat. The beautiful “Strelka” can be heard below, and as Levienaise-Farrouch explains, it brings resolution and optimism to the record.

“I knew quite soon after I started writing Strelka that it would be the closing piece of the album,” she tells PopMatters. “It reflects on elements and melodies that appear in earlier tracks of Like Water Through The Sand. Autofiction and memories are subjects that inspired me on this project, and the album goes through quite a few emotional states while exploring these themes and processes, but I wanted to leave the listener on a more peaceful note. Strelka was a soviet spacedog, and the tittle is in part due to the sound at the beginning, it reminds me of a space probe in an old science fiction movies. Yet, the idea of drifting through space makes me rather optimistic, you can’t predict what you will discover, it’s full of hope.”