Artistic residency recordings don’t always end well. Maybe there are synergy issues for artists thrown together, maybe it’s the unfamiliar working environment, but I guess mostly it’s time stress and constraints that mean that most output is mostly a snapshot in time and place, rather than a timeless treasure.
Admittedly with their existing friendship, Topper & Reith cheated somewhat, but still. Topper, with his predilection for classy, gentle, well arranged instrumental music has TSMM form, and I’m now keeping tabs on Reith’s abstract yet approachable ways. They certainly seem to have brought out the best in each other.
During the residency they wandered around Ghent collecting field recordings and paying attention to life’s oft-ignored minutia, before heading back to the studio to translate those observations into this thoughtful and minimal electroacoustic soundscape, where musicality & micro-sounds merge and familiar instrumentation brushes shoulders with more far out frequencies to fine effect. It’s an intimate recording and I would suggest best explored during a quiet, solitary moment.
Playlist Companion
For a longer sound bath sink into the warm waters of the Slow Ambient Playlist
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