COOL HEAT is the solo project of Chicago-based musician and photographer Eden Sierotnik. The self-titled debut EP introduced a haunting, gorgeously cinematic take on lo-fi dream pop and shoegaze, with tracks like “Reflection” and “Rose” proving a remarkable ability to make melodies feel nearly four-dimensional. The music is influenced in part by his photography, which he often uses as album artwork - both attempting to capture a liminal, yet vivid moment in time.
The synth melodies on Levitate evoke the feeling of being pushed into a freezing cerulean pool, in a way that reinvigorates rather than immobilises. The anchoring element within all that lo-fi colour, ironically, is Sierotnik’s calm vocals. Title track “Levitate” expands on the iciness of opener “Home,” “Drift” embellishes the darkened expanse with glimmering flourishes, and closer “Feel the Way” shudders and floats as if traversing rarefied air. Modern and retro at once, it resembles a deep dive into the otherworldly.
