Domingae
previously played guitar in
Foellakzoid
, a Chilean psych rock band whose spaced-out, hypnotic grooves drew from Krautrock as well as minimal techno. Following their 2019 album
I
, which was mixed by
Uwe Schmidt
(
Atomâ?¢
), the group played shows in Japan and
stayed at a traditional farmhouse in Yamaguchi during an artist residency. Taking a vastly different approach to creating music, she started recording solo material, which she finished after moving to Mexico, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AE
is her first release as
, and it marks the beginning of an entirely new era of her art, as well as her personal life. Throughout the album, she deconstructs the sound of her own voice, scattering her breaths and murmurs among dark waves of cold, flickering electronics. On "Daemon," she introduces steady, knocking beats, which her detached, chattering voice erratically swerves around. By the track's second half, it seems to approximate human rhythms more, even as it feels like jogging through a buzzing city which is strangely devoid of people. "Archaeans" slowly crawls up from pure stillness, with a heartbeat-like thump developing along with nervous fizzing which gradually becomes more curdled. The thump is reflected halfway through, turning it into a more subtly detailed beat, and the distorted static pushes outward. "AEnnihilator" is centered around
's heavy gasping, which is twisted around and multiplied so that she seems on the verge of panic. "Asaese" is the album's longest and most ambitious piece, and easily its most engrossing. A gentle rain of static introduces beats that slowly sleepwalk their way in, eventually hitting an echoing 4/4 thump and resonating like
Plastikman
at his most submerged. A sharply ticking hi-hat momentarily provides a stark light in the darkness, before it all retreats further into the shadows. ~ Paul Simpson