Ambient Sunday with: Kendl, Atmøsphäre, and Manne Skafvenstedt #Ambient #Drone #Electronic

A return to Ambient Sunday with Kendl, Atmøsphäre, and Manne Skafvenstedt.

Kendl (Jesse Kendal) is from Melbourne Australia. His music has an emotional quality that shines through his work. As he says, “There’s always beauty on the other side of darkness.” The featured track is Dwam, taken from his new Dreamlike EP.

I’d never heard the word Dwam before. But it appears it’s a Scottish word meaning a state of semi-consciousness or reverie. But with an Old English root meaning confusion. Kendl is focusing on the reverie end of things. There’s a focus on a slow slightly vibrating piano line with a bit of found sound drone behind. Strings are gradually drawn in. It’s all very slow and semi-conscious stuff. But it’s also peaceful. There’s nothing jarring or disturbing here. It’s warm and womblike. You wish you could stay here forever.

Dwam

Dreamlike [Bandcamp $5 AUD]

Atmøsphäre is a Belgian artist Tom Lievens. He focuses on creating deep atmospheric and cinematic ambient music. And the Shaman EP is no exception. I’m featuring Floral Scent from the EP. This is a six minute drift. In many ways it can feel like it doesn’t do anything. But it does capture a space in time and a mood. A really deep ambient track with natural found sound and the lightest of electronics. The electronics don’t so much drone as have tones which glide along. It’s all wonderfully weightless and held in midair with no visible support. Beautiful stuff.

Floral Scent

Shaman EP

And so to Scandinavia for something a little chillier. Manne Skafvenstedt is a pianist, composer and producer from Stockholm, Sweden. I know it’s a cliché to talk about Scandie artists and snow and whatever but it really felt as though it applied here. The track is What You Don’t Know from the unknown, untold EP. It is a slow and meditative track. But not quite calming. There are some lovely tones but Manne cleverly uses an edge of distortion to some of them that gives the track a bit of an ‘edge’ It also gives it a slightly brittle, cold and crystalline quality that sets this apart from the run of the mill drone tracks. Ambient that gives you a little shiver.

What You Don’t Know

unknown, untold [Bandcamp 56 SEK]

~ by acidted on August 23, 2020.