Various Artists - gentle voices, vol. 1 (Cloud Collecting/Echo Blues ) [Ambient]
- The Slow Music Movement
- 19 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Every day should be Women's Day, but being as long fought sexual equality gains are in decline in even formerly progressive countries these days, it's a celebration that will for now remain an important and necessary reminder of women's achievements and the glaringly obvious need for gender equality.
Two women that have been blazing a trail in the ambient world for a while now are Anita Tatlow - vocalist and co-founder of the excellent ambient label Echoes Blue Music, and Cynthia Bernard otherwise known as ambient artist marine eyes and founder of cloud collecting - an outlet that highlights and celebrates women and gender expansive artists. The pair have serious form so you know a collaborative project between the two is going to be worth checking.
The Gentle Voices project pairs up twenty women artists from around the world and tasks them with creating music around the theme of "gentle voices", and girl, have they delivered. Bristol's Applefish and the new to me, LÃom kick things off with the sort of drifting vocals that you'd imagine would serenade your journey to the light when your game is over, coupled with a suitably distant drone that elevates, rather than distracts from the celestial choir. Gollden and IKSRE, both of whom are no strangers to TSMM, are next up with a delicate, electroacoustic gem full of stray instrumental notes, pleasant sounds and fluttering static that floats through the speakers on a light ambient breeze - genuine sonic serenity. Another new to me artist, Jun Futamata teams up with Tatlow on "silent aura" next, continuing the blissful vibe with a sterling ambient piano lullaby which would lull even the most colic stricken baby to rest. "Choral surrealist" Aphir provides the vocals I presume for her collaboration with the well named Drum & Lace on "resin", which injects some low key dynamics into the compilation by way of unhurried, pressed rather than stroked synth keys and a transmission that spirals, rather than floats through the speakers.
Pianist and vocalist Asia Dojnikowska teams up with the ever great Marine Eyes on, "that the light is everything", providing both keys and her blissful vocal tones to compliment Bernard's light touch atmospheric work, paving the way nicely for "when rain falls" a meeting of neoclassical compositional minds between Alanna Crouch and TSMM fave Freya Arde to pleasantly peaceful, reflective, piano and string fusion ends which have an understated grace. Two more new to me artists, Frogi and Reanne, are next - highlighting the curatorial prowess on show, and they kindly provide a gently ebbing and flowing soundscape with a restful vocal farewell. Aisha Vaughn and Dream Crease are next, opting to soar rather than breeze into the listening space with an impressively detailed, uplifting, glowing ambient transmission that aims for the stars, then shoots past them into a solar storm. Jolanda Moletta and Birds Of Passage take care of the penultimate track, the singing voice blessed pair dispensing with words, their calm vocalisations juxtaposing with the slightly chillier drone undercurrents to fine effect. The experimentally inclined Karen Vogt and the ambient bass loving Inquiri round the compilation off in fine style with the patiently building, low frequency infused "standing start", a shapeshifting, eventually rousing end to this wonderful compilation and celebration of some of the talented women to be found in ambient music studios around the world.
Make sure you sign up to marine eyes' newsletter, which regularly shines a light on the talented women of the ambient world.
For further reading around this topic check out my article, Women in Ambient Music and Thoughts on Gender Equality in Music Production from 2020, and its accompanying playlist.