Stefania Avolio, from Verona in Italy, says her debut album is inspired by the sea yet, despite this, none of the nine titles contain any oceanic references.
Prior to this release of original compositions, she has recorded cover versions of Elton John's 'Sacrifice'; Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights' and Tears For Fears' 'Mad World'. These show that she has a perfectly fine singing voice yet only two tracks on 'Natural Element' - Symbiotic and Silent Moon, - have discernible lyrics.
For the other tracks, she adopts a more experimental approach using wordless vocals which she says "allow me to give emotions that let free the listener to interpret."
The sound of an elegant classical piano is combined with discrete electronica to evoke gentle, subtly changing moods conjuring, in the mind's eye, images of light, shadow, movement, light and grace - well rendered in the video to Escapism.
This album has a calm, flowing quality but with all the tunes being under five minutes it feels like a blueprint for something that could be bigger and bolder. There is a strong sense that the tunes would benefit from being extended into longer mood pieces.