Brooklyn, NY
Post-Pop Noise Swoons

On Noveller ’s žFantastic Planet, guitarist Sarah Lipstate bends and refracts melodies, filtering her instrument through an extensive chain of pedals and often blurring the essentialžsoundof the guitar. As a teenager, she was drawn to the rock abstractions of Sonic Youth, which led to her devising her own approach to the guitar. “I just wanted to make noise with an electric guitar,” Lipstate says. “I wasn’t really interested in learning how to play in a traditional sense.” In 2011, she began releasing music as Noveller, and her ambient, swooning passages quickly scored Lipstate big-name fans like Iggy Pop, who invited her to open a series of dates on hisž Post Pop Depression tour. Though Lipstate’s atmospheric, instrumental sound might seem at odds with Pop’s proto-to-post-punk rock, he likely recognized a kindred aesthetic leanness in her work. She often makes her guitar sound like a synthesizer or strings, but she’s still drawn to the singular relationship she has with a guitar as her primary compositional tool.ž“I realized instead of just collecting instruments and pedals, if you just really spend time with what you have—get to know your instrument and your tools—you can really go deep and create some sounds that are exciting to you.”