(February 2010) Honey Meridian is the debut full length from Moscow musician Valentin Lakovley, under the project name Milinal. This digital LP from Audiobulb records explores a number of aural landscapes, from dark haunted washes of dissonant textural sounds to sonorous explosions of bright cheerful melodies. Lakovley drew on a broad spectrum of sounds to create this album, including a number of instruments, voices and field recordings all unified by melodic glitches, micro edited within an inch of their lives. The variety of source material adds to the alchemical charm of Lakovleys composition, in which elements seem to continually transform themselves rather then moving linearly through a sequence of movements.
Honey Meridian kicks off with a brief introduction that sounds like a prepared marimba played underwater, transitioning elegantly into the four and a half minute masterpiece “Inside Sea Shells.” This combo of understated crunchy electronics complimented by obliterated vocal samples is one of the most unique songs I’ve heard in years, primarily owing to the processing of the vocals. While the deconstruction of the human voice into digital abstraction is a common occurrence in the world of electronica, it is safe to say no one has ever done it quite like this. There is something truly alien about the feeling these disjointed, pitch-shifted vocals inspire, some quality that cannot be discussed without resorting to insufficient metaphors. On that note, this song is either a Martian lullaby carved on the inside of a melting glacier or a chorus of elf machines singing the national anthem of nowhere, but either way it’s bad ass.
While “Inside Sea Shells” is probably the best individual song, the album is consistently amazing from start to finish. From the delicate scraping strings of “Drift,” to the pastoral IDM of “Brinta” to the lovely piano and tuneful whispers of “Artificial and Yellow,” each track represents a distinct sonic environment worth a hundred revisits. On the whole I prefer Honey Meridian‘s more melodic and structured moments to its ambient dronescapes, but the overlapping waves of static laced samples on exploratory ventures such as “Stereo Fall of the Leaves” and “Hurricane” are loads of fun as well.
This is such an impressive record that at times it is almost hard to believe it is a debut. Compositions this distinct and mature usually come from multi album veterans, not 23 year old producers with one previous EP under their belt! Cheers to Lakovley and the folks at Audiobulb for this great piece of music, I can’t wait to hear what comes next.
Honey Meridian is out now on Audiobulb. [Listen & Purchase]
