The first thing that strikes home about Ilar is the variety of styles he draws upon. Electronica is meshed with minimal techno and deep house. He takes warm analogue elements and mixes them with the steely chill of digital sounds.
[Listen | Purchase] Despite having quite a varied and full discography, I only came across Anders Ilar recently with his Vidare album on Further Records. The blame for my lack of awareness sadly rests at my own door, as Ilar has released a vast amount of material on labels such as Shitkatapult, Narita Records and Echocord. But enough wallowing in audio guilt, what is the Gothenburg producer up to these days? Running parallel to Vidare is another album, Stories of Old on Yard Rec. To date, Yard Rec has been solely inhabited by Chris H. Jones, aka Yard. Now the horizons are broadening with Ilar on board.
The album starts out on the moody pathways of “Carving Wooden Hearts” and is determined to lead the listener further into Ilar’s den. The tracks are dense, complex structures that give the appearance of simplicity. The route of Stories of Old is far from fixed, as in the disjointed “Cries of Wilderness” or the epic scape of “Unfold.” Ilar’s sound sits somewhere between Autechre and Echospace, utilising cracked electronics with thick astral sounds. The beatless atmospherics of “Heliopause” scare up memories of S.A.W. II but in a digital sphere while “Unconditional Surrender” harks back to the sounds of Phonem and the broken electronics of Morr Music. The track is retooled, firstly by Adam Johnson and then by label boss Yard. The strings of the original are given an organic anchor by the remixers, adding much more a plucked feel to the bass lines to produce two excellent versions of the original. The album comes to a close with the lost sounds of “Untitled,” summing up Ilar’s latest expedition nicely.
The first thing that strikes home about Ilar is the variety of styles he draws upon. Electronica is meshed with minimal techno and deep house. He takes warm analogue elements and mixes them with the steely chill of digital sounds. The traditional borders of hardware and software are blurred in this diverse aural dip. Looking beyond this record Ilar has pinned his collar to other sounds, such as his acidic appearance on 030303 Records. Stories of Old showcases a brief slice of Ilar’s capabilities, reflects on what made electronica a hypnotic sound whilst looking at some new ways of viewing it.
Stories of Old is out now on Yard Rec. [Listen | Purchase]
