Concetta Abbate's LAMINARIA: A Haunting Dive into the Shadows of Folk Horror Chamber Music

Concetta Abbate’s LAMINARIA: A Folk Horror Chamber Music Suite is an ambitious and evocative album that delves into the realms of folk horror, trauma, and the elemental power of nature. Through Composers Concordance Records and NAXOS International Classical Music Library, this 13-track suite takes listeners beneath the waves and into an eerie world, with music that summons both beauty and terror from the depths. Inspired by the life cycle symbolized by kelp, the plant’s name, Laminaria, becomes a metaphor for both life and death. It’s a fitting title for an album steeped in haunting elegance, introspection, and the shadows of lived experience.

The suite’s inception is deeply personal to Abbate, a violinist, composer, and Death Doula, who weaves her understanding of life’s impermanence into every note. Her journey into composing LAMINARIA began after her 2020 release, Mirror Touch, which explored synesthesia through the solo sounds of a five-string violin. This time, Abbate’s vision expands into a full ten-piece chamber orchestra, transforming the folk horror genre into a powerful musical expression of the darker aspects of mental health and trauma. She takes listeners on a journey with each track, confronting shadows and healing through sound.

Abbate’s orchestra for LAMINARIA is as unconventional as it is atmospheric, featuring the rumbling tones of bassoon, bass clarinet, and alto flute, along with a rhythm section that includes a guitar, drum kit, and keyboard. Some musicians even lend their voices to haunting harmonies, and custom-built instruments from musical artisan Skip La Plante create unique, ambient effects. This instrumentation evokes the eerie vastness of the ocean, where haunting foley effects intermingle with dynamic improvisations, amplifying the album’s shadowy allure. Abbate and her collaborators masterfully balance a sense of unease with bursts of beautiful orchestration, creating a space where listeners can confront their own emotions.

The album has made a striking impression on New York’s contemporary music scene. Since its premiere, LAMINARIA has been performed live eleven times, six of which were in collaboration with the Wendy Osserman Dance Company. Through this partnership, dancers add a visual element to Abbate’s storytelling, enhancing the themes of solitude, resilience, and rebirth that permeate the music. This fusion of dance and sound has garnered LAMINARIA a devoted following and has brought Abbate’s profound vision to a wide and captivated audience.

LAMINARIA is more than a folk horror suite; it’s a narrative of inner exploration, a journey into the deep recesses of human experience. For Abbate, music is both a healing process and an art form, and in LAMINARIA, she invites us to explore the liminal spaces where fear, nature, and self-acceptance intersect. This suite is an invitation into the unknown and a testament to its haunting beauty.

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