Azita, Disturbing the Air (side A)

Azita's musical work took a sharp turn in 2003 when she released Enantiodromia.  After years of creating punk / no-wave chaos with the Scissor Girls and Bride of No-No (plus the dense and harsh solo electronic effort Music for Scattered Brains), she made an album of quiet, contemplative piano / vocal songs.  For nearly a decade, she's consistently maintained this aesthetic.  But, in a way, 2011's Disturbing the Air begins to integrate some of her earlier ideas more recognizably into her new work.  Where her early piano songs tended to follow conventional verse-chorus structures, she's now moved into more open-ended and through-composed compositional structures.  This approach recalls especially Bride of No-No, whose songs also explored more narrative and less tidily repetitive forms.  Azita also relies more heavily on extremes of her vocal range that draw attention to her autodidact background, and that de-emphasize her ability to sound polished.  The arrangements on Disturbing the Air usually rely only on piano and vocals, with an occasional and simple synthesizer overdub adding texture.  The piano here sounds particularly rich, great, and timeless — it seems to surround and engulf Azita's voice.  The beautiful, slightly-blurry cover photo and hand-written font look amazing and reflect the subtle, smeary beauty and hushed intimacy of the album.