Atmospheric, with mood enhancing meditative textures, free from decorative distractions.
Expressing the concept of solitary
This split-release album is part of a Handstitched* series of two artists featured on one release, one album. This one is HS41 Farben #1 / A Sunday’s Silence. The cover art image makes me think of a keyhole, or a silhouette of a symbol perhaps expressing the concept of solitary. Maybe that has more to do with the weather here now, which is rainy. The sound I hear on this album is atmospheric, with mood enhancing meditative textures, free from decorative distractions. Overall, this blended experience is rich with simple electronic baths of shadows and calming greys. The geographic origin is from Germany.
In the Handstitched* label’s own words, the split-release concept is “A series of evolving limited-edition issues are released on both mini CD and C45 cassette and will focus on two artists with a total of 22 minutes per artist, one CD and one-half of a C45 cassette per artist – limited to 50 copies per release. Each of the formats have hand-crafted packaging, unique, hand-printed covers for the CD and hand-made cassette sleeves for the pro-dubbed tapes.” My first encounter with Handstitched* was reviewing HS42, Temple Of Solitary Reflections / UNTITLED by X.Y.R. / Danny Scott Lane, where you will find a bit more background on the story of the Handstitched* label.
Yair Etziony goes first. These tracks were written, produced and mixed by Yair Etziony in the Handwerker Raum Studios in Neukolln, Berlin 2021.
“Geld” (05:24) sounds sparkly grey, the mood is calm and slow, and yes, minimal, which is eventually joined by emerging nervous clicky hidden echoes. “Grau” (05:45) has an interesting hissing sizzle that opens into a larger breezeway then settles back into the grey zone, slowly rising and falling, continuing with the slow and calm and darkly reflective sensation, with sparkles in the darkness, the track ends throbbing. “Grun 1 & 2” (08:40) translates as green, there are two parts, the first part exhibits complex atmospherics that seem to thrive on combining rattlescapes and glowing fog, with slow progressive sustained monotones. Part two has more urgency, with the rattlescape picking up the pace within the framework of the slow sustained monotones, there is a mallet feeling. To sum it up, this sound does the mellow well, with no snags, dark with no bad monsters. You can really dream in the grey and green of this world.
Now Oberlin, these next tracks were recorded by Alexander Holtz using a Eurorack Modular Synth & Arturia Microbrute in Koblenz, 2018.
“Another” (09:55) means being one more or more of the same. Opens with a slow sustained organ/harmonium glow. Eventually joined by glacial progressive chords, gradually flowing into a flickering fog. “A Third One” (05:45) is the second selection on the second split, slow sustained organ/harmonium glow, with slightly more complexity than what we have heard so far. The fog is throbbing, the progressive chords cycle and extend. “A Sunday’s Goodbye” (04:34): There are so many layers to the title. Sunday is the odd day out of the work-week after the traditional celebratory Saturday night. Goodbye is a transition, usually sad because paths are parting. Slow sustained organ/harmonium glow fading and gathering, holding a sustained quiet darkness.
A perspective of synergy as well as a showcase for individual accomplishments ::
Humans are the only creatures on this planet that can describe or explain the sounds they make or hear, sometimes this audio phenomena is called music but there are discussions that expand said concept beyond easy definitions. Does music have a specific purpose? There are lots of emotional issues associated with sound. Which comes first, the mood or the tune? Does the music create the mood? Does the mood find solidarity or affinity with the music? This is a continuing expansion of the possibilities for meditative accompaniment, calming and supporting a sense of validated melancholia and respect for quiet room to heal and find comfort in darkness. Once, the sonic result of putting someone to the land of nod was a pejorative concept for musical expression, now it might become an aid for good health.
Once you find the purpose for slow motion dark ambience, the collection can bring you to new places and dreams. This Handstitched* musical pairing series brings a perspective of synergy as well as a showcase for individual accomplishments. This specific release, HS41, has a warm grey vibe that exposes two German atmospheric artists, one originally from Israel now living in Berlin, and the other living in Koblenz, located at the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle rivers. The physical distance between them is more or less six hours (depending on your choice of transportation) while the psychic or atmospheric separation is invisible.
Yair Etziony creates expansive, resonant ambience, textures and drones. He has a project called False Industries, a boutique label in Berlin that he manages, specializing in dark experimental music. Etziony studied bass and music theory with Shmuel Aroch and Arie Wollinez. As a producer, composer, curator, label owner, techno DJ, leader of psychedelic rock bands, he has become influential in the Israeli electronic music scene, and was one of the first Israelis to perform with a laptop on stage, also was one of the first to embrace the “Eurorack” modular standard. He digs Conrad Schnitzler, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Manuel Gottsching, Ash Ra Tempel, and Gunter Schickert, as well as 70s horror and sci-fi soundtracks.
Alexander Holtz creates his quiet, calming and intriguing, slowly evolving worlds of thick, warm drones and ambient sound from guitar, modular synthesizer and field-recordings, he records under the name Oberlin and besides this Handstitched* release (and his work on Bandcamp) he has had a handful of releases on the Thirsty Leaves label. His work has many adjectives: ambient desolation drone electronic experimental field recordings melancholia minimalism modular synth, and all things grey. “A guitar, a modular synth, a piano, a field recorder and a four-track-tape are Oberlin´s most important vehicles.”
Farben #1 / A Sunday’s Silence is available on Handstiched*. [Bandcamp]
