Unspoken is “performance-based, with no click, no grid, just playing,” as stated in the liner notes. Featuring granular and raw construction permeating distinctive synth swells, Unspoken flows through like a forgotten soundtrack to our soul.
An ethereal passage of time
From his early contemplative IDM days to more abstract synthesizer strands and full-steam ambient guitar releases, where Unspoken firmly sits, Stephen Hummel’s subtractiveLAD alias has traveled thousands of miles over the years with many significant releases in his rearview mirror. His most recent work is “performance-based, with no click, no grid, just playing,” as stated in the liner notes. Featuring granular and raw construction permeating distinctive synth swells, Unspoken flows through like a forgotten soundtrack to our soul. It’s the kind of music that simply delivers evocative soundscapes and orchestral ice sheets that ebb and flow pleasantly, with no apparent beginning or ending.
The album’s title track and “Theory of Omission,” where unsettled waves crash at our feet, are two examples of subtractiveLAD’s use of additional, resounding layers that thicken throughout, evoking memories of classic port-royal or Fennesz compositions. Could it be the reflective guitar lines of “Luminescent” that allow us to feel faint light beams piercing through the darkness, enabling Unspoken to uplift and give us new, and perhaps a much-needed perspective of the world around us? Surreal, breathtakingly fluid, and an ethereal passage of time, this recording is simply essential.
“This one spilled out of some deep part of me.” ~Stephen Hummel
Unspoken is available on Bandcamp.
