Enveloped was a thing of beauty back in 2002, but be under no illusions: this new remastered edition is a revelation.
The deFocus imprint launched way back in the year 2000 with a small compilation titled Do You See? It then set about releasing a bevvy of ambitious and creatively fertile releases from the likes of CiM, Lackluster, John Tejada, the mysterious Plaid-produced Plus One and Tim Koch among others.
2001 the saw the Kahvi Collective contributor Georgi Marinov release his debut 12″ Ikae as Esem. The following year, deFocus released their penultimate album, Esem’s sublime debut album Enveloped on LP and CD.
Following on from his digitally remastered album Scateren originally released on Kahvi, Marinov has returned to the original multi-track files and now—fifteen years later, and presents us with a newly mixed and fully remastered edition of Enveloped, available directly from his own Bandcamp site.
Enveloped was a thing of beauty back in 2002, but be under no illusions: this new remastered edition is a revelation. The stellar opening track “Eloki.neadu” so beloved by all at Igloo makes this immediately obvious. The bass has more guts without being brick-walled, the reverb and delayed elements now presented with a clarity and focus that was, it seems, previously muddied. “Noulli et” has never sounded so propulsive and driven, “Tetaby” has a new opening and a cavernous ambiance previously missing and the piercing ice-shards, aggressive, rattling percussion and smooth pads in “Rz_ttt” are revitalized.
If you own the original CD and/or LP make sure you keep it for posterity, not least because “3k2” (a personal favorite and a precursor to the brilliant Serial Human released on Merck in 2003) is missing from this reissue. But make no mistake, this 2017 remaster is now the definitive version of Enveloped.
It makes one wonder just how much we’ve been missing from all those other albums released in this era.
Enveloped (remaster) is available direct from Esem now.
Many thanks to Georgi Marinov.
