All-star Orlando experimental act Lost Noises Office release new album, 'Cloud, Castle, Lake'

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Orlando’s music culture is now a panoply of styles diverse enough to foster an ecosystem of microgenres that can be dizzyingly obscure. Even so, few can truly claim to occupy a singular space quite like Lost Noises Office. In fact, this chamber-pop group aren’t really even part of a scene. They’re an alternative reality.

That’s not a surprise considering that the trio of Holly Tavel (vocals, keyboards), Sarah Morrison (violin, autoharp, toy percussion) and Beatriz Ramirez-Belt (oboe, English horn) have a rare blend of pedigree that straddles avant-garde, classical and jazz. Their collective résumé includes Obliterati, Choc, Tangled Bell Ensemble, Karl Berger’s Improvisers Orchestra, Lakeland Symphony Orchestra, Answers and Alterity Chamber Orchestra. Equally unsurprising is that the union of these women results in something highly conceptual, incredibly specific and anything but typical.

“I think what makes our sound unique is that it’s mainly drawing from non-rock/pop influences,” says Tavel. “There’s a lot of soundtrack, especially Morricone, Michael Nyman, library (production music), exotica, cabaret.”

As their upcoming debut album will reveal, Lost Noises Office specialize in a kind of exotica that eludes easy categorization. That’s because their music is simultaneously here, there and somewhere else altogether. Unlike some wildly esoteric music, LNO’s experimentalism takes familiar sounds — from history, memory and even childhood — and restitches them in novel and unconventional ways.

“I think we each love curating and assembling sounds, discovering then weaving and shuffling timbres and colors to build this alternate sonic world together,” says Morrison. “I love it when unsettling elements slip themselves into the cracks.”

Across full songs and entrancing interludes, the 10-track Cloud, Castle, Lake finally portrays the enigmatic LNO in full, intriguing length. They use a wonder-weaving trove of known sounds (strings, keys, vibes, woodwind, horns, toy instruments) and reimagine them to craft a new realm with an aura at once familiar and foreign.

Lead single “Davis Park” is a cinematic instrumental as evocative as an introspective Air. “Mad Scientist” layers vocal harmonies and rich 1960s ambience to conjure a looping, Stereolab-esque hypnosis. “Forest School” is an odyssey that waltzes back and forth between left-field lounge and eerie children’s story soundtrack.

Cloud, Castle, Lake is a sound that’s otherworldly but not alien, a vision that’s post-modern but forward-minded at the same time. It’s a new frontier for Orlando’s experimental music scene.

The album will stream on major platforms on Dec. 5. But locals will get an advance live peek at Lost Noises Office’s release show this week at Stardust Video & Coffee with Captured Bird (8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, stardustvideoandcoffee.wordpress.com, $8 suggested donation).

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All-star Orlando experimental act Lost Noises Office release new album, ‘Cloud, Castle, Lake’

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