Ethernet, Opus 2

(Kranky, 2013)

«The bulk of recording took place during the darkest months of winter in the Pacific Northwest, between late-night shifts providing technical support for hospital operating rooms. The pieces on the album each formed gradually and spontaneously during extended improvised sonic meditations as part of the composer's own trancework (or self-hypnosis) practice, this in an effort to remove specific compositional intention from the process, instead just allowing them to "happen". If 144 Pulsations... was about expansion of awareness and opening to the light that surrounds us, Opus 2 is intended to induce inner contemplation and internalized focus on the light within us. It is also a statement on the gradual darkening and inexorable decay of our modern world, and the need to look within to find true support and sustenance from one's own energetic source. Patience and perseverance.» (Ethernet)

Suave, vaporoso, esponjoso como nubes rosadas, así suena este bonito disco de ambient que parece compartir vibraciones con el cuarzo rosa de la portada. Grabado por su autor en algo así como un estado de trance y compuesto con una orientación hacia la meditación y la sanación, se le puede ver cierto parentesco con el ambient espacial de Steve Roach y compañía, a la vez que resuena en él algo de las primeras composiciones de Aphex Twin, así como tal vez algún punto de contacto con el drone más reciente de artistas como Fennesz y Tim Hecker. Sin embargo, tiene un claro carácter propio, una energía diferente, que me ha calado a la primera escucha, posiblemente por el espíritu que irradia, más cósmico, pacífico y positivo que en las referencias citadas.

Sus drones sintéticos empiezan en tonos pastel en "Monarch", un inicio muy tranquilo y cautivador, que me trae a la memoria los inicios de los discos de Mountains. Después, sin embargo, va adentrándose en un púrpura brillante más interestelar y misterioso, hasta llegar a la expansividad catártica de "Pleroma". Recorren sus paisajes, rítmicamente, pulsos poco intrusivos y algunas texturas más ásperas que otras, que se superponen en una riqueza sonora de capas y ambientes de distinta densidad que dan la sensación de estar flotando en la atmósfera extraña de un planeta de seres incorpóreos.

Resulta en general un disco fluido, relajante, hipnótico y agradable, con una cualidad sutilmente dinámica y ligeramente melódica que le suma atractivo e interés. Un buen fondo para hacer lo que estés haciendo flotando a unos centímetros del suelo, y un nombre, el de Tim Gray, para seguir de cerca.

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Soft, vaporous, fluffy like pink clouds, this is how this beautiful ambient album sounds, seeming to share vibrations with the pink quartz of the cover. Recorded by the author in something like a trance and composed with a focus on meditation and healing, you can see here a link to the space ambient of Steve Roach and company, while something of the first compositions of Aphex Twin may echo in it, as well as maybe some point of contact with latest drone artists like Fennesz and Tim Hecker. However, it has a clear character, a different energy that has caught me on first listen, possibly because of the mood it radiates, more cosmic, peaceful and positive than in the mentioned references.

Synthetic drones of pastel colors start the trip in "Monarch", a very quiet and charming onset, which reminds me the usual starts in Mountains albums. Later it goes deeper into a more interstellar and mysterious bright purple, reaching the cathartic expansiveness of "Pleroma". Its soundscapes are rhythmically crossed by not intrusive pulses and some textures rougher than others, which overlap in rich sound layers and drones of different densities that give you the feeling of being floating in the strange atmosphere of a planet of incorporeal beings.

Overall, it is a fluid, relaxing, hypnotic and pleasant record, with a subtly dynamic and slightly melodic quality that adds appeal and interest to it. A good background for doing what you're doing floating a few inches above the ground and a name, Tim Gray, to follow closely.

bandcamp / listen to "correction" / buy