Avi C. Engel & Bradley Sean Alexander: Rewild
(Floralia)
Cassette | DL
Out Now
Avi C. Engel & Bradley Sean Alexander collaborate on Rewild. Andy Brown explores the ambient undergrowth for Louder Than Struggle.
You understand what it’s like when anxiousness takes maintain – thoughts racing as your coronary heart price will increase… uncomfortable… persistent. It was throughout one among these moments that I made a decision to hit play on Rewild, the brand new collaborative album from Avi C. Engel and Bradley Sean Alexander. Remarkably, the results have been nearly speedy. That invasive sense of pressure eased because the album’s stunning ambient sprawl got here into focus. That is precisely what I wanted.
For the uninitiated, Engel is a Toronto-based songwriter who makes experimental folks, whereas Alexander specialises in blissed-out ambient music and information primarily as anthéne. With even a cursory flick by their discographies, it isn’t onerous to listen to how a collaboration would possibly show fruitful. Whereas their respective fields might initially appear fairly completely different, each artists are fairly adept at creating an ethereal, near-magical ambiance with their music. With Rewild, the duo takes us on an ambient journey into the metaphysical undergrowth.
A Snake Sunbathes efficiently units the tone with a gentle digital drone, shimmering guitar and a gudok that weaves its method by the refined, sonic expanse. Whereas some tracks function a extra conventional vocal, this introductory piece finds Engel’s voice echoing by the sound like a ghost within the machine. A close to 10-minute monitor the place you’ll be able to virtually really feel the frantic spin of the world start to decelerate.
What Do We Do Now wraps us up in a blanket of sound, Engel singing about labyrinths and trapdoors as they information us by the darkish. Troubled but oddly comforting. The static crackle on Tremulous evokes the picture of TV fuzz and a lonely, dimly lit bed room. When Engel’s serene vocals drift in, warning us of toxic fireflies and tiny beasts, it appears like we’re adrift in some stunning nightmare.
Rusted Flying Machine is a close to 11-minute-long instrumental, but I may fairly fortunately take heed to all of it evening. Celestial drones and fragments of sound that really feel mournful but rejuvenating. I would fall asleep with this one on repeat and simply let it slip inside my goals. 1000 Arms feels equally dreamlike; soothing, saddened and otherworldly. “A thousand arms/ A thousand golden arms/ Attain out of the ocean and pull down the solar and stars” comes the poetic, quietly apocalyptic mantra.
Tidepool is paying homage to Angelo Badalamenti’s work on the ultimate collection of Twin Peaks, particularly the piece Darkish Area Low. There’s one thing of that tracks aching darkness and determined solitude to be present in these unusual drones. In some methods, Rewild is a darkish album but the general impact is reassuringly calming. 42 minutes the place you’ll be able to merely embrace the void and let the world slide by.
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Take heed to Bradley Sean Alexander / anthéne on Bandcamp right here and at House Regular right here.
Yow will discover Avi C. Engel on Bandcamp, Instagram, Bluesky, Fb and Patreon.
All phrases by Andy Brown. You may go to his writer profile and browse extra of his critiques for Louder Than Struggle right here.
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