Rewild is a sumptuous, bittersweet, and spiritual post-ambient effort with captivating moments of everlasting and nostalgic beauty.
An almost ecstatic dreamlike state
Another precious and brand new K7 edition carefully crafted by the man behind the deeply organic, emotive, and challenging ambient music project Anthéne. Next to his personal music production, numerous collaborations, Brad Deschamps also operates the indie DIY labels Polar Sea Recordings and the promising Florina Editions dedicated to releases on limited tapes. He releases here his second effort under his real name in collaboration with another Toronto-based artist: Avi C. Engel, whose musical signature mixes in a distinctive and evocative dream-pop ambient (built on delicate and melodious guitar touches) with immediate, pure, and heart-breaking vocal lines.
It’s almost impossible not to be absorbed by such musical enchantment and this warm folktronica experience—somewhere between Marissa Nadler, Grouper, Loren Mazzacane Connors, and Seabuckthorn. See my review of their past release Ghost Bird, (Polar Seas, 2021) described as “shrouded in a gleaming and delicately evocative foggy atmosphere.” Rewild, in this case, consists of rich, expansive, and oceanic flowing ambient sceneries with plaintive and detached guitar chords that meet reflective and ethereal, if not almost fantomatic, vocal parts seconded by subtle electronic devices and grainy atmospherics. It is mainly on looped textures and repetitive patterns which give to the ensemble an almost ecstatic dreamlike state.
Rewild features semi-classical ambient styles impregnated by downfall folk tendencies. The result is easily transportive and animated by a sense of sheer melancholy and fragile beauty. Every song traces a path along broken memories, desolate remembrance, solitary grieving, and time surrounded by discreet lights of hope and magical shimmers.
All in all, Rewild is a sumptuous, bittersweet, and spiritual post-ambient effort with captivating moments of everlasting and nostalgic beauty. Easily recommended to all lovers of profound and solemn musical experiences enhanced by crystalline and whispering melodies. This marvelous album will be on repeat for a long time. An essential release of 2025, in the ambient music spectrum and beyond.
Rewild is available on floralia editions. [Bandcamp]
