In Concetta Abbate’s song “Alkali Halo”, off of her forthcoming album LAMINARIA, the lyrics unveil an expansive interaction between nature and the supernatural, blending trauma, life cycles, and the often overwhelming forces of nature. The phrase “Alkali Halo” captures both a heavenly vision and an earthly decay, reflecting a lens through which the rest of the album’s haunting folklore and mythos are filtered. The way Abbate uses words, such as “Tangled Strings” and “Chaos Things,” is indicative of something tangled-an utter distortion in the use of the lens through which traumas and pains of the past intermingle with the present. This seems to hint at an interior chaos, a mess parallel to the fickle nature of the universe.

Wholly, the album seems to cut through some spectral space between life and death, and “Alkali Halo” is more or less a keystone in its themes. Lines like “Clouded View” and “Nothing New” drive home the idea of cycles of repetition-a thought, maybe, on how trauma, like an ocean’s tide, may keep resurfacing in one form or another. This echoing of pain into healing across LAMINARIA finds Abbate using symbolic “shadow ghosts” in speaking about experiences generally stigmatized or shrouded in silence.

This is a lyrical investigation that shines brightly through subtlety, guiding listeners through confused borders of life, death, and rebirth. Abbate’s skillfully minimalist language lets listeners engage deeply, creating a spectral resonance lingering much like the folklore and haunting mythos this album embodies. With LAMINARIA, Abbate captures not only a hauntingly beautiful perspective but also frames a safe and expressive space to deal with society’s darkest taboos.