NŸLAND - MODAL COLLAPSE / CONTINGENT OVERLAY


Kringloop Kassettes is an ongoing series curated by Frans de Waard with an interesting concept: each title is released in a limited series of 26, on reused cassettes found in thrift shops, housed in handmade art on (of course) recycled paper. The releases (currently 21) present a diverse range of electronic and experimental music, which is, of course, no surprise when you know a bit about De Waard's musical taste or if you followed his Vital Weekly newsletter (which he has recently ended).
From this diverse output, I picked two examples, both from Dutch artist Peter Johan Nÿland. Nÿland has been a member of the industrial/dark ambient project Trepaneringsritualen since 2017 (among other groups and projects), but has released solo music since 2006. These two albums present a fascinating array of electronic music (which - by the way - I would definitely not specifically describe as 'ambient').


Modal Collapse, #16 in the cassette series, presents four tracks each around 7 minutes, often built around rhythmic loops and heavy dub-effects. With 19 minutes, the closing track Gnosis Condutc is much longer. and a longer fifth track of 19-minutes. Gnosis Conduct is a long-form drone-based soundscape with a haunting dark atmosphere (and a lot of sub-low) that gradually builds into a subtly layered noisescape.
Surprisingly, Contingent Overlay (#19) has a similar structure: four tracks around 7 minutes and a 19-minute closing track. The first 2 tracks are heavily rhythmic, after that the soundscapes get somewhat more introvert. Overall I felt that the atmosphere on this album was a bit less dark, it also is a bit more 'ambient' than Modal Collapse. But still this music requires attention, it is clearly not meant to be 'ignorable'.


The physical availability of the Kringloop Kassette editions is a bit enigmatic. To obtain one of the cassettes you have to mail to Korm Plastics, but this is only mentioned on a few of the releases. I assume that when there is no mention of this mail-address this means the cassette edition is sold out. Which seems to be the case for these two Nÿland releases, unfortunately.
But the good news is that the digital versions of the complete series are offered as a Name-Your-Price download. A no-brainer then, if you are interested in adventurous experimental electronic music.


Modal Collapse by Nÿland


Contingent Overlay by Nÿland








HADLEY ROE - SUBLIMINAL GROWTH PATTERNS


I cannot tell much about the UK artist Hadley Roe, except for the details she wrote on her Bandcamp page: she "creates soft dreamy ambient music to cope with (and make sense of) a rare and debilitating mental illness". Some more details about this are found in the liner notes for her 2024 debut album All That's Left:"I started creating ambient music when I was diagnosed with a rare and debilitating mental illness - an illness that prevented me from holding down a regular job, maintaining healthy relationships with fellow human beings, or living any kind of semblance of a 'normal' existence…So I decided to move to a quiet little house in the British countryside, where I could be alone with my own thoughts for a while, and heal."


It may not have been her original intention to share her therapeutic music with anyone else, but we can be glad she did. After the release of The Inner Garden earlier this year (on The Past Inside The Present label), we can now enjoy her latest album Subliminal Growth Patterns. This time, it is released on her own personal imprint Slow Mending Records.


Subliminal Growth Patterns presents two tracks, both around 18'40". They are slightly different, not meant as one continuous piece but as two separate tracks. Both are continuous floating drones "made up of shimmery drones, rippling ambience, soft bittersweet melodies and fuzzy granular textures".


Compared to the notably calming #1, #2 has a more insistent quality, thanks to a looped 'beep' that builds a rhythm for the other instruments to lock into. Both, however, create a wonderfully warm and peaceful (and hopefully healing) atmosphere.


Subliminal Growth Patterns by Hadley Roe

--- originally published on Ambientblog ---

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