Tales From The Shadowlands is a mesmerizing collection of textural ambient layers that sway into and out of focus, like lost memories slowly reemerging in the far recesses of the brain. It’s quite simply a captivating, surreal, and dystopian gravitational arch.
Previously describing Understated Theory’s work as “gritty crushed samples and swaying noise,” Tales From The Shadowlands continues in this eternal trajectory, its solemn voice slowly evolves via distant drones. Silent whispers buried in the background, eight carefully woven pieces ebb and flow with microscopic gravity tones.
The opening track, “No Man’s Land,” is reminiscent of classic Rod Modell, a wash of sonic shifts and deep-ambient loops from the early 2000s. There’s a sort of rebirth on this release, a drenched organic versus shoegaze dynamic that fans of early Fennesz would enjoy—”Raptured Earth / Heavy Skies” is a prime example where eroded strings vibrate with undulating noise. Moody, alluring, and draped in subtle emotive cycles, as evidenced on “Solar Refraction,” Understated Theory manages to inhabit desolate spaces where instruments stretch to no end. It becomes even more evident that the duo’s use of time is thoroughly enveloping. The aptly-titled “As The Ashes Wash Away” dips into the subconsciousness, its dreamlike mystique, gentle notes, and tranquilized emotion delivers minuscule static clicks that decompose and dither away. Like a misplaced Future Sound Of London artifact, “Beyond The Shadowlands” is perhaps the most expansive of the lot, it’s atmospheric swirl and low-pressure pulse is both eerie and intoxicating.
Tales From The Shadowlands is a mesmerizing collection of textural ambient layers that sway into and out of focus, like lost memories slowly reemerging in the far recesses of the brain. It’s quite simply a captivating, surreal, and dystopian gravitational arch worth every minute of your time.
Tales From The Shadowlands is available on Sparkwood.
