Ambient Sunday with: Matt Lindauer, Many Pretty Blooms, and Human Is Alive #Ambient #Acoustic #Chill @thehumanisalive
Ambient Sunday is mixing pure ambient with acoustic in tracks from Matt Lindauer, Many Pretty Blooms, and Human Is Alive.
First up is Matt Lindauer. His biog whimsically says he, “arrived on a cosmic cupcake to bring you banjos, synths, and beats.” His electronic work wanders across House as well as more downtempo. In addition, he also plays and sings in the Brooklyn-based indie rock trio Myrna.
We’re firmly planted in ambient for Heart And Carpet. The track was written in mountains outside Denver, Colorado. But the strange title is explained thus, “I called it Heart and Carpet because I think it moves us to want to lay on the floor and just experience our feelings.”
Taken from the Moon Shop album this is a beautiful womb experience. It’s utterly beatless and the better for it. Tones rise and fall but without ever quite hitting drone lengths. Everything moves slowly and yet it has a poignant melody that tugs at the heartstrings and moves you through the track. Properly foetal.
Many Pretty Blooms (Johnny Wilkins) offers a more acoustic ambient experience. He comes from Austin, Texas and with a manifesto that says he, “uses sweeping and melancholic guitar loops in an attempt to make you gently weep. Generally, you will notice results after several plays.”
Slow Intruder isn’t going to make me weep but is a lovely mix of electronics and acoustic elements. Taken from the I Will Not Shudder album recorded over the summer, it opens with acoustic guitar that has an Americana tinge but the strings and loops give it a gently epic edge. There are beats but they’re slow and left well back in the mix. That allows the acoustic guitar and soaring strings to firmly hold onto centre stage.
There’s something deeply emotional at work here. I may have got some dirt in my eye so excuse me while I wipe it away. Lovely.
Human Is Alive is Pavel Lipatov, a Russian producer mainly focusing on ambient and chillout sounds.
The featured track is Reflections of the Past. It’s really a drone track. I don’t post many of those. But there’s something about the haziness of the track that got under my skin. It’s beatless and has an oddly lofi edge. It’s only three minutes and yet delivers a time-stretched experience.
At one level almost nothing happens. It hazes into view and ultimately hazes out of view. But somehow the in between has a melodic substance. This is banks of clouds drifting by very slowly. There’s a weight to all this that delivers on the reminiscence of the track title. Quite sadly moving.
ACID TED 