Berlin-based Canadian DJ / producer, and Tresor resident, Laura Sparrow aka LNS, has a new E.P. coming on Going Good offshoot, Counter 99. Both Laura and label founder, Salik, are part of the global Sex Tags crew, and firm friends with the imprint’s DJ Sotofett. Laura has released several collaborative co-productions with the talented Norwegian, the latest being Reformer, an excellent adventure in Drexciyan electro / techno, and here he handles mixing and engineering duties. 

The title track, Misiats, actually dates back to 2019, and was originally released, digitally, in 2022, to help raises fund for Ukrainian refugees. Laura herself is of Ukrainian descent, and the piece is based on a performance of the folk song Oy, ty misyatsyu / Ой, ти місяцю (“Oh you are the moon, I’m a bright star”). Repurposing the voices of the Mutyn Village Women’s Choir, and transporting their hypnotic hymn-like chants out of history and into the future. Lifting spirits to a mid-tempo beat.  

Birch and Shale both feature Laura’s sister, Nadia, on alto flute. The former summoning serenity from squeezed and stretched sine waves. A romantic, noir, ambient float, bathed in brass and reed-like drones, and buoyed by a beast of a bass-line. The latter puts relays of rattling metallic hand-percussion into a subtle, deep house setting, where the racing rhythms, which sound totally live, are countered by Nadia’s wonderful woodwind. Working from snippets to full blown solos, amidst tech-y touches. One of those records, that while rushing manages find an introspective inner peace and calm, it might not be an obvious, immediate peak-time big room banger, but there’s definitely a proper payoff for discerning dancers with patience. 

The remaining tune, Pizzica Tarantata is an update, a reimagining of an Italian ritual, a traditional healing trance dance, first released as part of a boxset put together by multimedia / multicultural collective FLEE in 2019. Now remixed, and a mystical, magickal meeting of ancient and modern, a booming electronic bottom end compliments its complex drum circle dynamic, ancestral song, and sharply strummed and picked strings. Synths adding panpipes and swooning orchestration.  

LNS’  Misiats is due at the end of July on Counter 99. You can preorder copies at Juno and Phonica. There’s a nice interview, and mix, over on Ran$om Note.