Liquefied slow-motion electronics and warm, synth-based atmospheres are on full display. Bubbling synthesizers ride through past iterations of low-end harmonies, acrobatic percussion and laid-back ambient lava flows.
[Release page] In 1948, Alan Robert Pearlman (developer of ARP instruments) foresaw the coming age of electronic music and its significance with synthesizers and once wrote: “The electronic instrument’s value is chiefly as a novelty. With greater attention on the part of the engineer to the needs of the musician, the day may not be too remote when the electronic instrument may take its place as a versatile, powerful, and expressive instrument.” Fast forward about 65-years and an expansive array of musicians continue to use these instruments to display their sonic messages. Ambidextrous (Russia’s own Nick Zavriev) is one such figure in the past decade that cultivates new fabrics of music and rebuilds his sound libraries with exquisite variety.
Radio Not is predominately a low-riding ambient assortment that propels original strands of texture into serene trajectories. Having had plenty of exposure on labels such as Shaped Harmonics, U-Cover, Merck and Art-Tek (to name a few), Ambidextrous focuses on linear electronic extractions rather than skewed electric activity this time around. Imagine a collaboration between early Rod Modell, The Detroit Escalator Company and Plastikman and you’ll begin to understand the direction this multifaceted album takes.
Liquefied slow-motion electronics and warm, synth-based atmospheres are on full display. Bubbling synthesizers ride through past iterations of low-end harmonies, acrobatic percussion and laid-back ambient lava flows. There are moments of brittle clarity on tracks like the swirling beauty of “Arp In The Fridge” and “Saint John’s Mood.” The 12-minute epic of “Naukograd” gently transmutes from celestial ambience to downtempo acidic Theremin-styled grooves and back again to The Motor City’s mid 90’s inspired layering. As Ambidextrous takes on a chilled progression throughout Radio Not, one can’t help but hear a sense of calmed audio transmissions emanating across the spectrum. “Tiangong” bends low-pressure soft-synths and various bits of vocal sampling buried under the radar to cause curious rhythms to emerge. Firmly embedded in the archives of ambient electronic, recalling to mind Global Communications, Radio Not is a balanced foray of tranquilized tones, clips, whirs and glazed sonic burrows of emotion.
Radio Not is available on SEALT. [Release page | Bandcamp | Juno]
