Profile: Hi-Fi Sky
Hi-Fi Sky Former residents of New Orleans, Hi-Fi Sky last played out live just before the Katrina evacuation. Consisting of Alexandra Scott (vocals, violin, keyboards, theremin) and Tim Sommer (guitar), Hi-Fi Sky produces lush, cinematic, drone-pop. On their debut CD Music for Synchronized Swimming in Space, the duo presents an original brand of electronic ensemble playing that could only have come by way of the timeless melodies rooted in the 200 year-old French and Arcadian culture of New Orleans.
The combination of traditional Cajun music and ambient atmosphere is the signature sound of Hi-Fi Sky. Their music is rooted in the New Orleans tradition, but filtered through a variety of musical influences - no-wave, krautrock, ambient and drone - and translated into something entirely different. Hi-Fi Sky
Hi-Fi Sky builds their music around the haunting and melancholic melodies they discovered beneath the traditional instrumentation of Cajun music. Once removed from the context of the washboard and accordion, the meaning and beauty of these uplifting pieces becomes apparent.
Hi-Fi Sky Both Scott and Sommer operate in a world where genre is something to be assimilated and transcended in the pursuit of singularity. Their combined influences and experiences span many generations and genres of music and has infiltrated their work on every level.
Tim Sommer was the founder of the slo-core bellwether Hugo Largo, and recorded two acclaimed albums of swirling, chiming chamber punk for Brian Eno's Opal/Land label (prior to that, Tim played with legendary noise composer Glenn Branca for three years). In many respects, Hi-Fi Sky is a transfigured verson of Hugo Largo. This "continuation of ideas" has lead to an ambient music that possesses texture and tension with a density of emotion.
Synchronized Swimming in SpaceReview : Music for Synchronized Swimming in Space by Hi-Fi Sky:

The languid, cinematic sound is sometimes reminiscent of Angelo Badalamenti's score for "Twin Peaks," yet the music is entirely distinct. The debut by New Orleans' Hi-Fi Sky is a muggy, melodic effort with whispery vocals by Alexandra Scott and minimal, suspended-motion accompaniment by Tim Sommer (ex-Hugo Largo). The duo's textures spin electronic and acoustic instrumentation into a gauzy, reflective garment that belongs to no particular era. There are echoes of German ambient pioneers and 20th-century minimalism, along with occasional cadences of the American South. Music for Synchronized Swimming in Space is pleasant background music but worth a closer listen.

- David Luhrssen/Shepard-Express   9 June 2005

Hi-Fi Sky make their Philadelphia concert debut on 28 October 2006 at The Gatherings Concert Series with electro-acoustic multi-media ensemble Slow Six.

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