Experimental Electronic Music
Just in is news of continuation of a new chapter on Nettwerk with the release of Ash, rounding off his EP trilogy, initiated with Eev (igloo-’viewed) and Aer, with its conceptual theme of a ‘life arc’ from exciting new beginnings to the darkness of dealing with life’s challenges.
Through multiple evolutions along decades, with a refined combination of harmonies, a deep sense of space, a phenomenology of time and bright sonic manipulations based on acoustic timbres, Japanese artists invite the listener to enlightened and intuitive inner promenades.
A quarter of a century on from optimal.lp’s release, then, its timelessness is still palpable, even enhanced, with the reissue’s addition of three tracks made while working on it, plus a new take on the closing “Tank” (digital only): in prepping the reissue, running one of the masters through a customized reverb unit, he began recording the outcome of this haptic past-inside-the-present dialog.
We find it all confusing and compelling at the same time. A serious snapshot through our day-to-day lives and the mundane commercial messaging that unfortunately is part-and-parcel of corporate powerhouse greed taking over our devices.
Sti.ll is overall smoother and more pleasant, which is really fitting for the intimate and subtle sentiment of the original LP, making it a re-listen that fans of the original should not miss out on.
The sonic language employed on this album benefits from an approach tempered in years of serious classical musical scholarship.
A felicitous confluence of two distinct sound worlds/whorls in a zone notionally adumbrated by texture-mappers.
The album admits a wide range of textures, field recordings morphed and treated with nuances and displayed with a massive sonic impact—immersing the listener in a vast river of emotions.
