YANN NOVAK - CONTINUITY


In case you wonder what the incomprehensible characters on the cover of Continuity mean: it's an encrypted text that you can decrypt following Yann Novak's instructions here. (I won't spoil the fun, just decrypt it).
It's also the introduction to the complex conceptual background of the album - a problem we unfortunately face much too often: "the album explores how our mechanisms for establishing truth often function in direct opposition to their stated purpose". One example of this, one of the most obvious perhaps: "Social media platforms, presenting themselves as spaces for free expression, function as sophisticated surveillance systems, where the very act of sharing becomes data for collection." The message is loud and clear: beware of "systems that present themselves as guardians of transparency while simultaneously undermining our ability to grasp reality".
Building the tracks on this album from 28 loops of field recordings and synthesizers, Novak translates the underlying concept to multi-layered soundscapes. After all, these "source materials include sounds collected in public spaces—where the act of recording itself embodies the surveillance impulse, transforming public experience into private data [...] These sonic elements can be reconfigured and reorganized in response to different performance contexts, reflecting how information systems can be used to recontextualize data to manipulate perception".
The music is comfortably immersive and all-encompassing in one way, but also dark and brooding in another. I wouldn't really be surprised if there were subliminal messages hidden in these layers of sound. But that is something the encrypted cover text does not disclose. Of course not.


Continuity by Yann Novak








ØJERUM - DRØMME I LANGSAMT STOF


With some 57 albums in his discography since 2007, øjeRum (Paw Grabowski from Denmark) can be seen as a veteran in the ambient genre. In fact, his musical career effectively started in 2014: there was a seven-year gap after his debut album release, but from 2014, a steady flow of releases followed. He has released music on many labels, familiar labels like 12k, Room40, Line, IIKKI, Midira, Shimmering Moods, Eilean, and Opal Tapes among them.


As far as I know, this is his first release on Glacial Movements. A more fitting label would not be possible for this album, since Drømme I Langsomt Stof ("Dreams in Slow Matter") is based on recordings of ice on a frozen lake. The ice crackling and moving can be heard all throughout the 45-minute piece, along with (what sounds like) cold gusts of wind, all sounds embedded in dreamlike drones. Sounds can hardly get more 'glacial' than this!


But - contrary to what you may expect - this is not 'cold' music. Grabowski creates 'a meditation on impermanence, stillness, and suspended glacial movements. [...] creating a cohesive, introspecive world where time seems suspended and meaning slowly dissolves.'
The CD version of Drømme I Langsomt Stof (limited to 200) will be released on September 19, but can already be pre-ordered. A digital download version will, of course, also be available.


Drømme I Langsomt Stof by øjeRum

--- originally published on Ambientblog ---

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