$3.33 is the LA-based artist and musician Celia Hollander. The classically trained pianist has been releasing music under the moniker since 2013. On April 7th, $3.33’s 2014 EP Draft will be reissued by Leaving Records as a limited edition cassette tape. Also, word has it, there will be a launch event on that night featuring a Draft-length music video by Miko Revereza. You can watch an excerpt from the video after the Soundcloud embed below.
On “+“, Hollander fuses subtle electronic effects with her thrilling skills as a pianist. The composition opens with impressionistic note clusters echoing out in all directions, and the effect is as though motes of dust are flickering in a suspended patch of light. Eventually, these pointillist arrays give way to more wave-like note runs, and the result is an ambiance that seems both calming and exhilarating at the same time. It brings to mind a quote of hers about LIVESTREAMS, a 2015 five-channel composition she did for the Sound Corridor at the LA gallery Various Small Fires, where she says:
“The last two times I heard classical music played outdoors was outside of a storefront and at a resort. In the former, the classical music was engineered to repel loiterers from the vicinity. In the latter, it was intended to create an ambiance of tranquility, order, sophistication, who knows. In the end, both were trying to do the same thing: to maintain an environment of relative comfort for the respective customers. Music can be used effectively as a weapon, a tool, as entertainment, etc, but it radiates best when no one is asking anything of it.”
