My May Spotify Playlist has a lot going on, so it’s going to take a few posts to unravel. Here’s the first installation.
Music for Museum Gift Shops – Lullatone. I love Lullatone’s twee instrumental work for its carefully stylized approach to delicate, childlike wonder. There are so many different charming sounds in a Lullatone track that it’s hard for me to guess how the tracks were made. That is, until this release. This very long album takes many, many Lullatone songs, including some of my favorites, and delivers solo piano versions. I can’t say whether these were written on solo piano or translated into the style for this record, but it’s surprising and interesting to hear the work stripped down to its basics. Those who love the flourishes and garnishes may find this work to be a bit spartan, but it definitely shows off that Lullatone’s strength isn’t just in arrangements–they have some strong melodies and chord structures to go along with it. Fans of solo piano will find this very interesting, while fans of Lullatone should also take note.
Weightless / Divisions – Anthene. Slow-moving, heavily atmospheric ambient music with a gentle bent. I like working to this quite a bit, as it fills the air with gentle moods but doesn’t invade my thinking. It facilitates, which is what great ambient does.
Fragments – Altars Altars. Appropriately titled, this ambient album is chock full of subtly woozy sections and little bits of ideas that are not strung out to traditionally ambient lengths (many of the tracks here are under two minutes). There’s not a lot in the way of melody here, as the subtly varied textures of the work are more important than traditional melodies. There’s a lot of tape hiss used as a backdrop, which evokes ideas of memory and history. The elegant album art furthers the concept. Overall the work is a careful, delicate, intimate, organic piece of work.
If You Are Who You Say – The Jonah Project. Bryan Diver from Drift Wood Miracle is back with a new album as The Jonah Project, and it is an incredible album. One minute I was mowing my lawn and the next I was crying in the middle of a Christian emo record. The Jonah Project’s If You Are Who You Say is the best Christian music I’ve heard since Ars Moriendi. The lyrics are Jesus-oriented but don’t cross out the difficulty of life; each song is a first-person narrative of a biblical character with a coda that explains artfully how the story points toward Jesus. The emo-rock is really good; the guitar work is excellent and Diver’s vocals are excellent in the context. There’s also some acoustic tracks thrown in there (“David,” “Abraham”). It made me shiver, made me cry, and made me want to pray.”Esther,” “Elijah,” “Adam,” and “Mary” gave me serious feels. He’s just so good lyrically–he took a huge leap on this record. It’s a fantastic record in a genre that I got tired of because everything sounded rote to me. Well, this one is not rote.
Sources – Eric Wollo. I’m astonished that these tracks were all created in the mid-’80s and early ’90s; these exploratory ambient pieces sound vital and contemporary. There’s a lot of pointillist, precise synthesizer here, which is unique (“Soft Journey,” “Under Water”), but the main appeal are the laconic, dreamy, lush layers of sound on tracks like “The Near Future” and “Ody at Sea”. Some of these latter type of tracks are so smooth as to feel almost beat-less; simply tapestries instead of tunes. Because this is a collection of tunes instead of a proper album, there are a few pieces that show off the same concepts or ideas in mildly tweaked form; however, that’s the only mark on this record. Otherwise, it’s a remarkably beautiful record.