Stellar OM Source
Stellar OM Source

From lo-fi synth noodling to skewed dance forms: as underground music narratives go, it's a pretty cliched one these days. But Christelle Gualdi is by no means a slavish follower of trends: The French producer was self-releasing CD-Rs of kosmische-inspired, new age-y synth improv for some time before interest in the style began to grow in the late 2000s. By then she had found kindred spirits in the U.S. underground, including the likes of Oneohtrix Point Never and James Ferraro. Her engagement with that scene culminated in a very fine album for Olde English Spelling Bee as Stellar Om Source, 2010's Trilogy Select. Gualdi's incorporation of dance forms into her music came after her deportation from the U.S., and a subsequent period of musical isolation in Belgium, where she is now based. The first recorded evidence of this shift was 2011 single Clarity, followed by last year's Image Over Image EP for Rush Hour imprint No Label. Gualdi's new sound retained the shimmering, highly synthetic chord work of her previous output, but re-housed it in a crisp rhythmic chassis - one which owed a clear debt to Detroit techno and electro pioneers like Underground Resistance and Drexciya.