Paper Dollhouse is the radioactive ambient pop project established by Astrud Steehouder in 2010, initially as a solo venture. Joined by Nina Bosnic, a multimedia artist, the pair collaborated on 2015’s Aeonflower released on Night School Records.
Shortly after, Bosnic moved from London to the country side. The move had a stark influence on Paper Dollhouse, shifting their collaboration into a different gear and challenging the duo to develop a new way of working together, culminating in the 2018 release, The Sky Looks Different Here. With this new working practice, the album saw the increased use of field recordings and, while it’s not strictly ambient music by any means, Paper Dollhouse’s more familiar elements have been mostly painted out.
The album also included the production work of Old Apparatus’s Asher Levitas.
The Paper Dollhouse sound is a delightfully coherent patchwork of voices and half-heard melodies. There are songs, just about, but mood is key. When everything coalesces it feels like a necessary release of breath as cavernous electronic percussion thrums against Steehouder’s smudged vocals.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .