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Listening Notes: This is Ambient Vol. 2

Ambient music, with its monotony, still offers something to those who understand it. The same goes for all genres of music, and everything in the world, really. Here are six ambient releases for this time:

A10:04 - -48 (2023)

70%
After trying to find information on Bandcamp, this project seems to have disappeared. 

A10:04 presents a single drone ambient track with a low enough sound that you need to increase the volume while listening. It's quite good if you listen from the start until the fade-out at 22:00, as I perceive it as a cosmic wave or the movement of air and its surroundings at a distance. 

However, it's a bit minimalist. 

Highlight: Ah Vox Slow

AAB - TMI (2020)

75%
Artist AAB is from Berlin. TMI is their only album with six tracks. 

Hook. The urgency of a hook is evident in "Sonho Real", which is placed at the front to calm me down because it's gentle. Then the title track seems harsher due to field recordings with kilasan sounds, but I still tolerate it. The next two tracks follow this mood and soften a bit in "Bruma", then return to the form I hoped would be whole in one song, "Lossless". However, the fifth minute changes it to a rotating friction until the end, and I drop it, although it's worth appreciating. 

Highlights: Sonho Real, TMI, Bruma, Lossless

Glacial Anatomy - Radiation Therapy (2024)

70%
Glacial Anatomy presents a conceptual album that continues from start to end with the clearest break at the end of "Radio7". The main components consist of ambient, dark ambient, and noise, as well as experimental synthesizer and electroacoustic sounds. The intensity of the noise is scattered, but it's quite apparent in tracks "Radio1", "Radio3" to "Radio5", the latter half of "Radio6", "Radio7", "Radio9", and "Radio11". 

So it's clear which ones I can accept, although overall it's worth appreciating. 

Highlights: Radio2, Radio8, Radio10

Hammock - Into the Blank / Madi (2020)

75%
I didn't expect that one of the post-rock giants, Hammock, would also produce pure ambient works, and it's free - although I also hoped to get their main albums. Hehehe... 

The texture of "Into the Blank" seems harsher, like drone, maybe an interpretation of falling into the void of space, but there's still an emotional feel, especially in the last three minutes. "Madi" moves more gently and has added field recordings that are somewhat submerged, like bird chirping, making it clear what the album cover represents. 

Highlight: Madi

Our Transient Lives - Nocturnes I (2021)

75%
Like Hammock, I remember Our Transient Lives as a post-rock band, but this EP is a melancholic piano offering. The airy layer of the recording seems a bit dirty, with reverb and clipping at the end of the notes, but the piano tinkling is still hard to ignore. It reminds me of the piano sample stack I made with Walk Band four years ago. 

So, although it's rough and seems like it should be abandoned like a building, I'll consider this EP overall. 

Highlight: -

Private Mountain - Blue Mountain (2019)

75%
The last part comes from Private Mountain with a drone/noise ambient flow that's not as long as I thought. A light breeze starts the album, which then continues to nighttime in "Ainmount 2", then switches to an atmosphere I can't read, maybe morning or what. However, "Just A Strange World" seems interpretable as daytime. "Private Mountain" becomes the peak with drone/noise elements and a meditative humming feel, and "Coming Back Home" marks the return from the mountain journey. 

Yeah, it's relevant to Bålsam, which also has a release on the same label, Neotantra, but not everything satisfies the ear like the wind passing by unnoticed. 

Highlights: Ainmount 1, Blue Mountain, Coming Back Home
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