Sometimes, the greatest ideas spring from the subconscious, fully formed. Such is the case with CLARA-NOVA, a name and concept that struck its creator, Sydney Wayser, in a dream. Musical exploration had already pushed the Los Angeles native onto a pantheon of Franco-American influences, from Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel and Charlotte Gainsbourg to John Lennon and Jeff Buckley. Now, her inventive songs swim to new depths in a mix of pastoral pleasures and urban grit—a sonic landscape of organic and electronic sounds. “Let me count the ways that you haunt me,” she sings on “Electric,” synths and strums swirling around her. “Let me count the ways that you stop me in my tracks attacking every part of me / you woke me up when the storm came and it’ll never be the same again.” Pulling inspiration from deep sea dance parties, ancient Egyptian ritual and Martian folklore, the upcoming CLARA-NOVA EP sets forth an otherworldly sound, grounded in the earthy intensities of the human experience. “I drank a handful of water from a black well,” Wayser sings on “Isis.” “Been painting my life and it’s not only golden / I’ve been humbled.”

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