A collaboration between Hoshiko Yamane (Tangerine Dream) and Mikael Lind. Already the title unfolds in several ways—the two musicians are composers and performers, and the process of writing the album involved them sending files back and forth without meeting, between Berlin and Reykjavik. The album sits in a space between acoustic and electronic, classical and pop (at least if you accept old-school synth sequences as pop).
In the pervasive yet evasive comfort of the digital now, Time Released Sound offers a welcome respite. While you can find their music uploaded on streaming services, it is really encouraged that you take a look at their website and shop—these people offer atypical and beautiful music an atypical and beautiful home in the form of specific, tailor-made physical packaging. While this review will only deal with the music on Spaces in Between, I encourage you to check out this label’s website, look at their shop, and marvel at the determination of this team. Here is the deluxe packaging for this collaborative effort:
The first limited edition version comes in the form of 60, re-purposed, vintage 35mm film cans. Each can has been hand modified front and back, with labels hand typed on an old typewriter, and each one is then stickered, hand stamped and further manually distressed. Inside each unique receptacle is a selection of 35-40 hand rounded 5″ circles/prints cut from a variety of papers, blueprints, schematics, sci-fi book covers, transparencies, maps and other antique ephemera. The circles are textural, textual, and are all meant to be in keeping with the album’s title of Spaces In Between. Also included is an especially printed image we created of the imagined city of “Berlinkjavik,” overlaying maps of the two cities where our musicians live. The track listing circle is painstakingly hand typed on a vintage typewriter, and many of the circles have also been hole punched and modified to show part of what spaces lie beneath, or between. Some of the punched out bits are included loosely in the cans. Each can is quite weighty, and feels exactly as though there is a reel of film in it still. At the bottom of each can, and underneath its own stacked “paper film” of sorts, lies the factory pressed disc in a rounded cotton sleeve.
I mean come on! See what I meant?
Back to the album. Spaces in Between is a collaboration between Hoshiko Yamane (Tangerine Dream) and Mikael Lind. Already the title unfolds in several ways—the two musicians are composers and performers, and the process of writing the album involved them sending files back and forth without meeting, between Berlin and Reykjavik. The album sits in a space between acoustic and electronic, classical and pop (at least if you accept old-school synth sequences as pop). It sits in a space between ambient music, and the well-known idea of furniture music, and compositions which always have something going on. Spaces in Between is a deceptively simple and lyrical record. This is heard throughout the album, but demonstrated in tracks like “Getting the message across.” Overdubbed violins start and then prompt an answer from the piano, who is soon accompanied by a warm, beautiful pad. Hoshiko’s violin sounds gorgeous, Mikael’s piano sounds gorgeous. Once again, it’s all about simple but definite contrasts in sonic identity. The track list shows this as well—”Connecting the Cycle,” “Flow Plus Cycle,” “Lasting Cycle,” “Into the Whirl,” “Wave Interaction”—the musicians never stop moving. “Wave Interaction” starts with a rhythmic phrase from an oscillator, and then the two collaborators play on top of it.
The album is just the right length too—8 tracks spread over 42 minutes. But in this comfortable sound environment, we are never bored. Oscillators come in, anchor a piece and then subtly shift its mood. The layers of piano interact with the crystal-clear sound of the violin. Sometimes, like in “Reprocessed Phrases,” a pleasant crackle is made to sit underneath, ambiguously. While the mood here is very much similar from beginning to end, there is a great delicacy and attention to detail. Delicate, but grave.
Spaces In Between is available on Time Released Sound.
