(03.07.09) Nunbient is the genre-cidal project of Joff Winks and Matt Baber – their curious moniker an amalgam of their band project, Nuns, elided with the word “ambient.” The Nunbient sound is based on electro-acoustic texturalism, stylistically flirting with ambient, IDM, drone, and prog, with a pronounced film-thematic quality. Utilizing real instruments (vibes, guitars and harmonium) and other processed elements, in particular the aleatory play of manipulated field recordings, One is a work which blends the warmth of organs, harmoniums and the cold snap of electronic beats, the incisive rockist qualities of guitars and synths with the more delicate intricacies of the classical minimalism of Reich and Glass.
One feels quite an eerie and cold album at times – presumably intentionally so, bearing in mind the dark sub-title. The artists comment in interview on an almost apocalyptic, end-of-days mood abroad in the world that eventually came to set the keynote for the album’s presiding concept. “A recurring theme for us recently has been this idea that we are currently standing on the edge of a cultural abyss, and possibly in it already,” they doom-say. A dark album for dark times, then? Not entirely, for, though the trilogy of tracks that close the album are appropriately imbued with dystopian atmosphere, this is by no means one of those Dark Ambient doom-fests of portentous flaccidity that are still churned out with monotonous frequency. In terms of its musical qualities, Nunbient is rather a project that seeks to establish an individual voice, whilst acknowledging a debt to contemporary electronica, in particular the 90s Warp output of Autechre, Aphex, and BoC (see esp. warbly keyboard sounds) or maybe the post-industrial ambient-IDM of the likes of the Hymen label. The clearest parallels are with Steven Wilson – also associated with the Burning Shed enterprise – and his Bass Communion, Porcupine Tree, and Continuum projects – ambient, prog and drone strands, respectively, all vital presences here.
The Nunbient hybrid finds close to perfect voicing on “Indian Box,”, which builds slowly from an ambient whisper though clanging and rattling percussion and tense eerie chord progressions to end in filmic, soundtrack epic dimensions. Other tracks prefer to dwell more on field recordings with peripheral instrumental presences, or lull languorously, though not without good effect, as on “Lowery Click,” which could do good service on a 12k or Kranky release. “In Tongues,” on the other hand, sniffs around the quieter realms of Mogwai, while “Drone Frost Porous” gets down where ECM meets the tail end of prog introversion. In sum, One is an album that tends to induce spot-the-influence tendencies, but contains enough enagaging material and evocative passages to warrant exploration, especially by those intrigued by genre-b(l)ending.
One | Just Another Dark Age is out now on Burning Shed.
