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Tinkling like windchimes from heaven, Vidna Obmana's Euphoric Bliss stirs within a superdense cloudboil. Always shapeless, the textures melt between phases of churning tonality and ringing discord. Nathan Larson as Samsa contributes the dark and resounding soundtunnel of Long Since Gone, echoing with tiny electro-organic stirrings, sweeping radiance and brassy overtones. The naturalistic essences of water and animal lifeforms seem to imbue Vir Unis' excellent Beneath the Hive with a spacious, living identity. The gently percolating sonic prescences are backed by light rhythms. (Speaking of Vir Unis, do not miss The Drift Inside...)
Brooks Rongstad is Exuviae; if his Blankets of Quiet were tangible material, they'd be a dark gray blend of flannel and silk; warm, smooth drapes of sound swathe the airwaves with a mysterious comfort. A more aggressive darkness awaits in the Regions Behind the Eyes as rendered by Mono No Aware (a.k.a. James R. Coplin, producer); actively rippling with unknown energies and bubbling with electronic powers, this track genuinely takes a different route to those spacey ambient places.
Steve Roach (12:12) heads toward the Resolution Point on spacious, shifting waves of sand. Lumbering beats plod amid quietly wailing synthlines and occasional windy gusts.
Becoming Light (5:35) signals time for sheer, unadulterated floatation; Jayme Washburn lays down softly intertwining sheets of sound which waft and wane in preternaturally serene cycles. Slightly grittier, though still strangely soothing, are the muffled hiss-and-drone pulsations of Me by Holus Bolus, capping off a great collection with a passage of vaporous noise.
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