Concave Reflection, Kindtree, and Millia formed the trio Purelink in 2020 to create music they couldn’t make alone. Blending ambient dub techno with glitchy textures, subtle beats, and dreamy atmospheres, their sound is slow, hypnotic, and immersive. Their latest album titled Faith deepens this style, mixing acoustic tones, brittle drum ‘n’ bass rhythms, and poetic vocals into a lush, drifting soundscape made for quiet introspection.
Organic and digital sounds dissolve into a hazy atmosphere
Concave Reflection, Kindtree, and Millia are three electronic soundscape designers, they formed a trio in 2020, to make the music that they couldn’t create alone. Their sound is laid-back and hypnotic, you won’t be dancing, but you’ll be swooning and swaying. This breaks like a unique form of ambient dub techno, a mix of atmospheric glitch, glass, rhythm, and space. Some tracks are free-flowing, others have subtle beats. Organic and digital sounds dissolve into a hazy atmosphere.
The trio’s debut album Bliss / Swivel was a 12-inch single, then came their first full-length, Signs. Now, they’ve released their second album, a blend of electronics with acoustic and eclectic sounds, sometimes with guest poet vocalists. You’ll hear balmy pads, acidic synths, and brittle ’90s drum ‘n’ bass rhythms. Formed in 2020 as Purelink, Tommy Paslaski (aka Concave Reflection), Ben Paulson (aka Kindtree), and Akeem Asani (aka Millia) have convened regularly in a shared studio to workshop, swap samples, and hone their collective muse via “the endless possibilities of a laptop.”
Hypnotic, trembling, barely heard and complex ::
Starting now, a drone with pulses and textures low and slow, the tempo is hypnotic, trembling, barely heard and complex, I hear a machine running humming purring almost soothing, subtly chattering into “Looked Me Right In The Eye” (6:38), with an electric guitar’s muted strings, and microchunks of texture floating around up there. The subtle groove flows one way and then slowly flows back like breathing in and then out. That nervous electronic motor keeps clicking away, suggesting soft delicate vaporous illusions floating off in little circles, and projecting complex movies behind the curtain. The feeling creeps into stillness, with a calm dreamy sleepy slow motion, a guitar rustling rumbling floating swimming upside down glitchy string currents, slow moving lingering in the atmosphere like a drone unhitched from any single instrument. There seems to be a squadron of instruments.
The second track is “Rookie” (Feat. Loraine James) (6:40) with a shimmering beat and the vocalist joins, in an easy slow pace, with interesting percussion, a wet sound splashing with electronic water. Hyperdub luminary Loraine James, a British electronic music producer and musician, raised in an Alma Estate tower block in Enfield, North London surrounded by a plethora of parallel cultures, check out her project Whatever the Weather. The song is all fitting together perfectly, splashing gurgling percussion bubbling drone surrounding us from above, in my mind we are flying over the lava flow, glowing colors illuminate the soundscape, finished by the bubbling percussive electronica.
Welling throbs begin to form ::
Next welling throbs begin to form a tapping beat with a traveling groove that is in no hurry. The welling has strengthened and there are other shimmers passing through mysterious distant complex feelings and textures sly beat, subtle and layered parts are hidden in the transitioning textures, no voices here, and there are hand beats. We are in the “Kite Scene” (6:06), the tapping is gone and now a sequencer spawns a new beat, picking up just a little, we are flying at the same galloping pace but soaring, sigh and away.
For track four “Yoke” (5:45), the flickering bits start coming together into that interesting skipping percussion effect, slow shimmering textures where forms roll about, never stopping, eventually building a walkway in the sky. Yoke as in pulling heavy weights, the sound is shimmering, never solid. Inside the drone and some bells I might have heard a guitar. Here the twitch switches a bit, with an easy breezy floating feeling going along, the hand drums are more distinct at times. The steady hum has layers now, something new is happening, flickering like sunbeams on water.
Angelina Nonaj shares a moment with us, there is the perfect field of background, things come and go and come again. Subtle simply sizzling and shattering, sounds captured restrained within muffled sharp humming, “First Iota” (Feat. Angelina Nonaj) (5:42) the intersection and translation between disciplines – performance, installation, writing, and publishing — challenging linear processes and fixed methodologies. A guitar strum echoes down an infinite hallway floating just off of the ground, everything is nothing and there are floating textures and words. The word contents come sharing a relaxed and not a demanding or puzzling curious tension.
Approaching language as a dynamic medium ::
Angelina Nonaj is a non-binary artist living and working between Italy and the Netherlands. Approaching language as a dynamic medium and living material, this could be the text, her life observations, hearing voices is part of her art. The background is always floating, the first iota signifies the smallest particle to change the status from nothing to one thing, in a blending shadow world perfect with the voice.
Round spinning bubbling stronger beats appear, looping sizzling sparkling darkly “Circle of Dust” (7:32) a subtle bubbling beat, odd rattles and bonks simmering as well, clanking easy interesting textures continue cooking away quietly and a rumbling friendly glow takes form. I hear layers of nervous rhythmic flickers and rolls, very thin, easy to see through like looking down into the fog below. Within the bubbles in the vast dark form floating in darkness, many small pieces coming together unlike any before, becoming a complex beat. I find it easy to get lost up inside there taking me with them somewhere I do not know, whispering voices, the beat goes on with no feeling of change until recently.
This album is easy feeling and interesting. It’s full of different textures and atmospheres. The sounds are haunted but never angry. There are tiny, interesting unidentifiable noises that come and go. The music has a tempo, like a complex machine humming, certainly soothing. You’ll find yourself floating, suspended in the sound.
Faith is available on peak oil. [Bandcamp]
