A powerful and deeply emotionally charged album that gives a large part to semi-improvised minimalist-wandering like patterns for acoustic strings, rumbling bass lines beautifully sustained by a corpus of field recordings and micro-tonal droning chords.
Firstly known for their impressive and original edition work in craft-based ambient drone music, I initially discovered the work of Etalabel and Bojanek with two distinctive and immersive instrumentally soundscaping albums by Virlyn (Man Asleep) and Zen Lu (River) . Etalabel starts to become an emblematic and uncompromised promoter of the best contemporary artists on the territory of emotionally textured-melodiously inflected ambient music. Owner and founder of Etalabel Grzegorz Bojanek is also a multifaceted artist with a solid background, mostly recognized for his fruitful musical production, investment in live festival events and various collaborative works. His new beautifully designed album entitled Constraints can be appreciated as a pick of creativity in the realm of organic-processed acoustic ambient. This is a powerful and deeply emotionally charged album that gives a large part to semi-improvised minimalist-wandering like patterns for acoustic strings, rumbling bass lines beautifully sustained by a corpus of field recordings and micro-tonal droning chords.
The opening track reveals an astonishingly dreamy-like theme for intense if not dramatic guitar chords, with an almost cinematic-road movie like feel. “Three is enough” is a beautifully-enchanting and sorrowing little ambient ballad for acoustic timbres. “My Mind Between The Walls” is subtle mix between aerial glitch ambient (Christian Fennesz, Rosy Parlane et al) and blurry-minimal touching guitar chords (Loren Mazzacane Connors)—absolutely enthralling and charming piece. “That Day Remained In My Mind” is a colorful-monographic interlude for concrete noises, fragile primeval acoustic chords and perfectly minimal electronic pulses. A definitely harmonious combination between artificial processed textures and warm acoustic motives. “All four seasons” shows the more digitalized-concrete electroacoustic facet of the project with a vast collection of meticulously combined “found sounds.” “Alone” follows the same musical path with the add of an intimate cinematic feel. “My Garden” is an imaginative sound wandering through mysterious glitch-esque vibes and processed field recordings with some ghostly notes—hauntingly minimal and psychically absorbing.
Constraints is a mature, complex and beautifully melodious ambient album which authorizes a perfect oscillation between texturally sonic electronics and deeply resonant acoustic ingredients focused on the guitar. An amazingly dreamy, evocative and challenging album which clearly deserves several listens to understand its wordlessly and mesmerizing capacities on the listener.
Constraints is available on Etalabel. [Release page | Bandcamp]
