The energy of his breakbeat manipulations is tamed by soft billowing clouds of enveloping sound, giving us an ideal listening for anyone who misses the glory days of ‘intelligent’ drum and bass, and eventually wants to feel it in our bedroom still.
Expansive and emotive soundscapes
Ludvig Cimbrelius returns with his third full-length album on A Strangely Isolated Place under his illustrious ambient jungle/drum’n bass alias, Illuvia. His previous Iridescence Of Clouds (2021), grabbed my attention being an hour-long set that unfolds like a dream. He’s a versatile Swedish musician known for his expansive and emotive soundscapes across a wide range of aliases, his new album is foggy yet joyful listening with atmospheric pads and lush melodies combined with lo-fi drums.
As the producer claimed on it: “According to my lifelong research, Earth appears to be a modulation of light. It is said that what the eyes receive are rays emitted by a star, whose flow of photons is invisible to the human eye until they are reflected and modulated by matter. Matter — the patterned dance of charged particles appearing out of nothing. Simultaneously, it is observable that light converts into matter. And matter converts into light.”
Those who follow Los Angeles label A Strangely Isolated Place already know that every vinyl edition looks sublime; but for Earth Prism its deserved royal treatment of being mastered by Hollis Nolan and then having the immaculate lacquer cut by the one and only Andreas [LUPO] Lubich. The resulting release is a gorgeous 2×12″ transparent vinyl in a gatefold sleeve, with printed liner notes inserted and a sticker of Noah M‘s artwork. The album is already out, and you can grab the digital version directly from Bandcamp.
The spectrum of a world appears ::
“Logic tells me that they are one, appearing as two. And, as a consequence of their division and subsequent interaction, the spectrum of a world appears. Being a manifestation of something as ethereal and ephemeral as light modulated by the dance of charged particles, the world feels surprisingly solid. Less like a prism and more like a prison. That is what the surface tells us. Those who seek freedom look deeper.” – Ludvig continues on the creation process.
This is the same musician that brought us more beauty as Purl, with releases dating back a decade now. His collaboration with Lav that combined elements of minimal dub techno with shimmering waves in 2017 (see A State of Becoming), and the one with Daniel[i] titled Tesseract. Cimbrelius also records as Eternell with releases on his own label by the same name. The energy of his breakbeat manipulations is tamed by soft billowing clouds of enveloping sound, giving us an ideal listening for anyone who misses the glory days of ‘intelligent’ drum and bass, and eventually wants to feel it in our bedroom still.
Earth Prism is available on A Strangely Isolated Place. [Bandcamp]
