When you think of improvisation in music what do you think of? Jazz players just noodling or blues musicians just pulling off solo after solo over static drums? When I heard that Amiangelika & were collaborating I was excited, but when I heard it was an improvisational album my interest when up a bit more. In electronic music improvising isn’t something that happens a lot. Experimental music yet, but electronic not as much as you’d hope. When I started listening to ‘BLCK SUN’ it was more than I hope and greater than the sum of its parts. The album is about the duality of life. The light and dark sides. The order and chaos. And there is plenty of organised chaos here!
The first thing you notice is how serene and cinematic ‘BLCK SUN’ is. The music goes at a leisurely pace. Undulating this way and that. Never rushing to get to the point, sometimes never making a definitive point, but creating these lusciously textured soundscapes along the way. On ‘Redemption’ the music starts out fuzzing and flexing. This carries on throughout. There is a feeling of pride that swells throughout, but it never feels gleeful. Instead, there are melancholic pangs, as there are with all redemptive arcs, that hint as a painful past that is culminating in an exuberant present.
‘Radiance’ features vocals through a vocoder. Underneath this is a light brushwork of synths and electronics. Then this massive sweeping melody kicks in and it’s one of the most glorious pieces of music I’ve heard all year. The textures of the vocals are a nice touch. It breaks up the instrumentals and makes the album feel more human. This is something that is lost in electronic albums. There are times when it all sounds artificial and that no human was ever involved in the process, apart from switching everything on. With the vocals we are reminded about the fragility of life, which ties back into the light/dark themes of the album.
If you have ever heard KMRU, Disparition or Vangelis then this is the album for you to get low-key obsessed with. The songs all flow into one another in a way that it stops feeling like a 10-track album and one long, continuous, piece of music. It would be interesting to see how Amiangelika & approach this live. As the music is improvised will the be able to recreate it? Would their live sets be elongated versions of the albums tracks or, more excitingly, just be an hour or so of music in a similar vein? These questions are what makes ‘BLCK SUN’ an exciting listen.
7/10
Words: Nick roseblade
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