Limited to 300 copies
Another bullseye shot for Sferic with this latest outing from Polish producer, Mateusz Olszewski, who's subtly rendered exploration of ambi-dream-pop guides the label's signature sound into some compelling new spaces. Zaumne's music has appeared in similar places to that of Claire Rousay, and there's trace elements of her narrative-driven, domestic concrete present here in the way the human voice is left balancing in the mix, a non-melody driven anchor that gives structure to the surrounding ambient drift. It's a trick familiar to anyone who might have held the Mono No Aware comp close, and something you'd imagine propping up the listening of anyone wondering where Tri Angle might have gone next had it not been co-opted by catwalks and Ms. Gudmundsdottir. Olszewski doesn't go it alone with their vision, either, bringing in friends Metoronori, Patrick Shiroishi and, most notably, YL Hooi, the latter of whom lends her characteristically dream-dub presence to second track, Sorcieres. It's an especially sensual, midnight dwelling outing that seems split between the unmoored, late night roaming of Moon phase Coil and the ghostly bass of the lone Kallista Kult outing from a few years back. So far, so good with such comparisons, though Parfum is more than just a series of fine tuned aesthetics. Like all of the best Sferic output, there's plentiful emotional heft at its core, suggesting an implacable otherness (have i been manipulated by ASMR?) that balances a neat line between the vaguely erotic and the very much sad for no real reason. Which, if we're honest, is pretty much our default cultural setting right now and lands Zaumne right on the zeitgeist.
