Review: Ophelia Sullivan – Disposable Identity

Style: Post Rock, Progressive Rock, Trip Hop, Experimental, Avant-pop, Electronica (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Steven Wilson’s art rock/trip-hop/electronica focused albums, Massive Attack, Bjork, Portishead, Anna von Hausswolff 
Review by: Christopher
Country: Germany
Release date: 30 October, 2023

We try to keep our readers on their toes. It can’t all be masturbatory Nospūn noodling solo spam and The World is Quiet Here style Frankensteinian riffs stitched together to create an affront to god. You can’t keep listening to the same six bands, we have to push you out of your comfort zones and make you listen to something that’s, y’know, different. 

To that effect: Ophelia Sullivan is a composer, producer and musician based in Germany and Disposable Identity is their debut solo album, although they’ve previously produced electronica and experimental music under the monikers Ecstasphere and Aphexia, as well as composition for film and theater (and, interestingly for the purposes of a prog metal site, Sullivan has also provided live guest vocals for fellow Germans Soulsplitter who I reviewed last year—we’ve come full circle!) With this new solo project, Sullivan has hired a busload of guest musicians, including a string quartet and a small orchestra, to fulfill their musical vision.

Sullivan’s sense of arrangement recalls Steven Wilson on albums like Insurgentes and this year’s The Harmony Codex: neoclassical strings and piano often provide a driving force with occasion coups from heavier guitar riffs, while the percussion ranges from trip hop to rockier climes, and Sullivan’s vocals provide the melodic throughline. Opener “Hourglass” sets the tone, Sullivan’s vulnerable yet defiant vocals with a deftly dynamic softness, an eerie chiming microtonal motif, thick metal riffs and a rather nifty guitar solo, doomy percussion, and ending with lone layered vocal harmonies and mournful neoclassical strings—a progressive flow through a variety of soundscapes that feel united in purpose.

There are so many cool compositional ideas here: “Rest Your Trigger on My Finger” wields menacing neoclassical strings over intricate beats, all held together by Sullivan’s haunted melodies. “Blue” eerie guitar motif fades out gracefully… until a hard drum and bass groove powers the song back up, Sullivan’s glitching in the melee—and yet that guitar motif remains in the background, anchoring this more manic segue to the track’s overall disturbed vibe. Meanwhile the combination of The Cure-esque reverb-laden clean guitar and Massive Attack style strings over a trip hop beat on “The Game” make for a languid, immersively psychedelic vibe, teetering constantly upon the verge of an emotional precipice.

Sullivan characterises Disposable Identity as focused on biographical themes of mental health, otherness, sexuality and queerness, and while there’s a metaphorical opacity to the lyrics, one can nevertheless detect how those deeply personal themes are being evoked. There’s a sense of turmoil, of fracturing, of yearning. When Sullivan lets out a cry of “I’m just as formless as you, you won’t remember my voice, disposable identity” you feel something; an inarticulable thing buried deep inside, but it taps into something real. There’s a rich authenticity here, the feeling that not only is the music beautifully composed but that the lyrics come from somewhere profoundly relatable and sincere.

Sullivan plays with time signatures and polyrhythms: most of “Blue” alternates between a bar of 4/4 followed by a 5/4, that extra bar conferring nail biting tension, and most of “The Key” is in 7/4 and I think the bridge might be a bar of 4/4 followed by 6/4… how should I know, I’m a music reviewer, not a musician. At any rate, the prog credentials are certainly here both in complexity and genre-blending, and metal rears its head at times, too, as in the syncopated, almost djent-like riff that closes “The Key” or the riff redolent of In Absentia-era Porcupine Tree that bifurcates “Core.” Add to the mix those haunting strings and Daniel Gräupner’s vital piano work and the result is a rather potent chemical brew. 

Disposable Identity is a deeply promising debut, beautifully produced and composed, and with an astonishingly expansive and dynamic sound. Ophelia Sullivan’s experience with other musical ventures clearly laid solid foundations, and here they show themselves to be a consummate artist in absolute control of their vision, weaving a tapestry of influences into an effortlessly brilliant release.

Recommended tracks: Hourglass, Rest Your Trigger on My Finger, Blue
You may also like: Meer, Evan Carson, Oak, Lack the Low
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Label: Independent

Ophelia Sullivan is:
– Ophelia Sullivan (vocals, programming, composer, producer, mixer)