Thursday, January 17, 2013

OSCILLATIONS: SINCERE VOID by Grasslung


This 2010 release by Grasslung  aka Jonas Asher, really took me by surprise with its take on what most would call "ambient music".  In many ways its seven perfectly paced tracks form a meditation of sorts on both sound and its use as a key to an ineffable nostalgia. Titles like "Scarred Hands",  "Feeding Your Vanity", "When We Were Young" and "Lay Down in a Ditch" suggest real emotions rather than narrative. One would expect at least some redundancy within these tracks,  but each is a soundworld unto itself,  detouring drone into something much more engaging than much of the work produced within this genre. While I have not spoken to Jonas about his sound sources,  I would think both heavily processed acoustic sounds and synthetic sounds make up the palette here. Most tracks employ repetition that is interrupted by subtle electronics,  crumbling noise,  percussives,  and even hints of melody.  For individuals who demand less noise and more poetry from a listening experience,  this could be an essential  release.  

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