pHantom; a 6 track EP by Ipeleng
This time, last year, sitting between the barriers of the walls in our homes, we sat in our solitude and listened to Ipeleng’s Unsolicited. Being within a space that demanded us to feel allowed us to dwell in Ipeleng’s vocals and immerse ourselves with every thing she poured into the 7 tracks. Here we are, again, feeling her music.
On 30 May 2021, Ipeleng released her 6 track EP titled pHantom. She introduced pHantom together as ‘an extension of herself, her intimate relations and the intricacies in between’. Therefore, pHantom does not fall far from the branches of Unsolicited in its narrative. In other words, Unsolicited is a reflection of her experiences with love and pHantom is a lens through which we witness what she feels encompasses her. It, too, cannot be separated from Ipeleng and all that resides within her mind and heart.
What the cover portrays for us: an EP filled with softness
From the cover of the EP, we think that Ipeleng is inviting us to sit in her mind with her. In our eyes, the couch is an emblem of being home or in a space, a corner where you unwind and become undone. The cover portrays something we feel in the sound which feels like a tour of the emotions she has framed within. All 6 tracks are intimate and each takes us into a different inward room of Ipeleng. Her vocals and the production dance as a unit; one does not drown the other. We hear the life that breathes in both. The EP is a musical gift full of acoustic elements; softness.
In addition, the plants that are full of life on the cover are a lens into her journey to healing ‘from the wounds of the illusion’ that she described in her release. The word phantom is defined as a figment of the imagination; something elusive. We believe that it encompasses the illusion Ipeleng talks about.
Listen to the EP here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4fuYZEezm9luBNG0zt3Oo7?si=defg2RiZTJuHYjEImQDl-A
