Art can be a healing experience. That’s certainly the case with Ilichna Morasky, the Chilean-born, Canadian-raised multidisciplinary artist based in Copenhagen. Releasing music under the moniker Strangerfamiliar, Morasky implemented synths, percussion, and her profoundly expressive voice on previous EPs, Fire Under Water (2015) and La Secuencia (2017). Recorded at home over several years and across three different continents, her first full-length album, La Pena, began in Santiago, Chile, as – according to the press notes – “Morasky went in search of connection, some time to regroup and discover a new path forward.”
The haunting first single, “Flower”, sees the titular life form expressing joy at providing beauty and comfort and understands that its death will lead to new life: “But if I should be spared being plucked out of the earth before my time,” she sings, “I’ll wilt gently back to the dirt / Watch my petals fly / To plant a new seed.” On the opening track, “An Organ”, the sparse instrumental touches are aided by violinist Eve Parker Finley, one of only two outside musicians on La Pena (Steve Newton plays modular synth on “Chain”). “This house feels empty as a hermit shell,” Morasky sings. “Though we hope the outside cannot tell / The organ plays a song of fear and doubt / And in the dimmest light I feel my way out.”
The press notes explain that “each song represents a step in the raw emotional excavation of a healing journey” by Strangerfamiliar, and while the music is deftly executed almost completely by Morasky, the album’s long gestation period helps give La Pena an eclectic, varied feel. “Shadow” is a dark ballad from the depths of the soul, but it’s followed by “Push”, which incorporates spiky, off-kilter syncopation more akin to dark, 1980s synthpop. The ethereal “Ocean” is almost hymn-like in its floating grace and simple vocal recitations: “I am in an ocean of love / God likes above me / An ocean of love lies above me.”
Aggressive synths and a slight nod to dance beats help turn “Truth” into one of the more sonically interesting songs on La Pena, bested perhaps only by “Chain”, closing the record with a generous helping of electronic glitches and effects alongside a subtle bed of chords and Morasky’s vocals, which alternate between soothing and soaring. This final track gives hope for the future of life and love. “Everyone keeps trying to find a love / That is like a chain / Unbreakable.” Strangerfamiliar’s La Pena is inspired by trauma, but the warmth and hope within those grooves is palpable.