Free Release Friday.
Best New Music.
The Strait of Anain: This Wandering Winter
2010, Qunabu
This album is available for free download here.
Precision is the logical complement to delicacy. It is the choice to be precise that reveals sensitivity to environment, which reveals what the artist is delicate about. It is only in environment that truly delicate choices come through, because the delicate choices are the most emotionally effectual.
This Wandering Winter is a delicate exploration of ambient moods and electronic melodies. One can easily see The artist’s clear influence of light upon his mood as the record meanders between euphoric melodies and subtle textural rhythmic structure. The artist restrains himself as a subject throughout, resisting the easy impulse to break his songs into full dance-like electronica on the basis of his mood in relation to his environment, yet never fully giving his songs over to ambient expressionism.
On his site, the artist discusses that the intent of the work is to explore the ambient
moods and emotions of himself within his environment, which is filled
with light. One can hear the grappling that he has between his own
artistic commentary personified in rhythm, and his environmental
exploration evoked in melody. This juxtaposition keeps the listener
intrigued throughout, wondering what choice he might make while exploring
his theme.
Tracks like “The Air from Alaska” frame the artist’s desire to explore the ambient space and his emotional reaction to it. Throughout the track, one can feel a refreshing feeling emanate from the ambient themes that bookend the track. There is rhythm and structure in the middle that feel evocative of the artist’s feelings while working. It is this comparison that reveals the delicate precision that the artist grapples with in his subject matter–environmental exploration or emotional impact?
The gentle pulsation at the beginning of “Light Reflecting” begs not just an ambient inspiration from clear influences like Jimmy Tamborello, but also evokes the kind of gentle lullaby of the theme songs of video games from youth. The artist seems clear in his intent not just to evoke environment in his work, but to mine the well of emotional, both immediate and innate.
This grappling gives the listener a portrait of a delicate man at work. This Wandering Winter invites the listener, but reveals its rewards upon intentional listening. The record seems innocuously ambient, but reveals its rich blessings in the listener’s reactions to the artist’s emotional creation.
Mp3s via Qunabu. Cover art via The Strait of Anain.
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Louis Korom IV is a writer and designer living in Denton, Texas.
I don’t know if I’m missing something, but I can’t seem to find “This Wandering Winter” or The Strait of Anain anywhere on the site.
Sorry that I didn’t describe this somewhere. You can get the release by going to the top of the page clicking “releases” and the release will be at the bottom of the list. From there it will take you to a page that will allow you to download the album.