Cassette
The second release on interesting new Glasgow imprint, Somewhere Between, comes from New York based composer, Chantal Michelle, who i believe previously debuted on Quiet Time Tapes, the also NYC based label who've put out Ben Bondy, Ulla, Kareem Lofty++ Michelle appears to unite a few worlds on Broken to Echoes, combining cavernous, droning ambience with modern compositional approaches that combine the acoustic and electronic, creating arcing, dense structures full of nuance and micro-detail. This isn't quite as abstracted as someone like Ben Bondy - far less glitchy and tech-y - though it does stress some similarity to the great Mono No Aware compilation through which i first heard Kareem Lofty, where ambient sensibilities were recalibrated for a Gen Z ear (you can thank Malibu and Yves Tumor for that). Which is to say this is the kind of 'ambient' music that feels embedded with narrative and emotional thrust, physical and evocative in equal proportion (and probably on some kind of opiate). Strange, then, that the songs are actually quite short, for there's a grandness of vision here that belies their succinct run time, reminding me in part of a miniature re-take of Lucy Railton's Subaerial. Best to leave 'em wanting more i suppose, but i could take a lot more of what Broken to Echoes has to offer. A magnetic second act for both artist and label.
Edition of 100 Tapes, Risograph print by Good Press on 200gsm blue card
Mastered by Adam Badí Donoval.
