Review: Rocio Zavala – Invisible Miracles
Power surging in circles, with self-made instruments using light and body-born electricity.
Composed with self-made instruments that use light and body-born electrical modulations, the drones of Rocio Zavala wield a cyclical energy reminiscent of waves, factory machines and respiration. They illuminate parallels between the human form and the world that happens upon it, or the feedback loops between earthly actions and earthly experiences. Persistent beats and electronic hums act like anchors for the improvised extrapolations of distorted feedback and echo-drenched voices, like a vertical evocation of the three states of matter – solid at the base, vaporous at the upper extremes.
For much of its runtime, Invisible Miracles tends toward calmer spaces. The fact that the beautiful opener is called “Root Drone”, with its gradual accumulation of soft harmonies like fungus sprouting across a tree trunk, carries the optimistic implication that serenity resides at the core of everything. Similarly, “Light Body” has a warm upward current that seems to generate the illusion of levitating, with doppler-refracted pulses sweeping like mirages across Zavala’s rippling drone horizon line. Yet the record rouses toward something more visceral in its closing stages, calling upon the scorched vigour of power electronics as the low frequencies start to snarl. This might feel menacing were it not for the counterbalancing elements: the splendour of the vocal harmonies for one, but also an inexplicable faith in Zavala’s intentions. She summons these frequencies because they reach deep into the bones and rattle them – there is no threat, just the splendid power of vibration.
