Smalltown Supersound / Norway / 2021
“Perila is making some of the most head-spinning ambient music out there right now.” — Pitchfork
Perila, the moniker of Berlin-based electronic musician Aleksandra Zakharenko, announces her debut album, How Much Time it is Between You and Me?, out June 25th on Smalltown Supersound, and today presents its lead single, “Fallin Into Space,” a track full of levitating synth and pulses of organic noise. With a sound world so specific and transportive, Zakharenko’s ambient music is filled with detail and movement akin to hauntological musique concrète touched by song.
Raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, Zakharenko moved to Berlin six years ago, finding her place almost immediately at Berlin Community Radio. Regular work with expressionistic field recordings and electronic sound research eventually led Zakharenko to develop her own podcast series, WET (Weird Erotic Tension), combining her evocative, atmospheric music with erotic spoken word poetry. After a handful of early cassette releases as Perila — a project name originally used for her BCR show — Zakharenko has arrived at Smalltown Supersound for her debut full-length, a self-described “immersive experience into self” viewed through a “silence prism” where everyday sounds usually ignored felt amplified.
‘Fallin Into Space’ is a track about grounding yourself in new places, accepting the surroundings, and opening up to what comes,” explains Zakharenko. “It’s about slowing down and being conscious about what and how your body is in that space. Many new things come to attention when you slow down and observe.”