Oh My! What a little gem just landed on my doorstep! Aleph Zero’s most recent output sees a selection of well-known and some lesser known artists cook up a journey into chilled beats, dub, psybient, ethnic and everything in between. Aleph Zero has an impressive track record when it comes to psybient/chill releases. Their consistently high quality output has made them a hallmark within the scene, and this latest release more then lives up to the high expectations.
The first thing that registers is the unbelievably wide sound spectrum which gives the music another dimension in which to tell its story. Massive props to Yaniv Shulman for the mastering! Now on to the music, because something remarkable is oozing out of the speakers from the get go. The promotional blurb speaks of “a musical genre-breaking story that journeys through different musical landscapes and geographical territories”. While in a lot of cases these blurbs are misplaced, self righteous proclamations of genius, in this instance the blurb tells exactly what you can expect. The music truly is a journey, and with the diversity of artists here, I tip my hat to Shahar & Shulman in compiling together so many different angles of beauty and being able to tell a coherent story.
As said, the story touches upon most excursions of downbeat music the scene has to offer. The feelings associated with the meanderings of sound are euphoria, melancholy, peace, warmth, joy and a touch of psychedelia. Some notables are Hibernation’s Hibernation, a very moody and classy opening to this compilation; Ott’s remix of Bluetech’s Prayers for Rain, Ott’s best work since Blumenkraft; Tau Kita’s Flying in the Rain, which has a majestic beauty that brings tears to my eyes; Interlaced’s Insologic, which I number among the freshest tunes I’ve heard in a very long while; and last but not least Outersect’s Kali Ma, which sounds like what I expect a collaboration of Shulman and Bluetech to sound like. However, the rest of the tracks are most definitely not fillers, as they all add to the story and are very strong offerings in their own right. |
