Article
Spotlight 6

Albums
17 Pygmies
Ælab
Aeroc
Adrian Aniol
Aleph
Artificial Memory Trace
B. Schizophonic / Onodera
Blue Fields
The Boats
Canyons of Static
Celer
drog_A_tek
Fennesz + Sakamoto
Marcus Fischer
Les Fragments de la Nuit
Daniel Thomas Freeman
From the Mouth of the Sun
Goth-Trad
Karol Gwózdz
Mark Harris
Inverz
Kingbastard
Tatsuro Kojima
Robert Lippok
Maps and Diagrams
Merzouga
Message To Bears
mpld
The New Law
Nuojuva
Octave One
Petrels
Puresque
Refractor
Lasse-Marc Riek
Jim Rivers
Dennis Rollins
Scuba
Shigeto
Susurrus
Jason Urick
VVV
Williamette
Windy & Carl
Zomes

Compilations / Mixes
DJ-Kicks: The Exclusives
Future Disco Volume 5
King Deluxe Year One
Phonography Meeting
Pop Ambient 2012

EPs
Blixaboy
Matthew Dear
Fovea Hex
Jacksonville
Kurzwellen 0
Phasen
Pascal Savy

Karol Gwózdz: Tamte Czasy
Psychonavigation

Psychonavigation Records begins the new year on a strong note with this disarmingly lovely debut collection of stirring mood pieces by Silesian-based Karol Gwózdz. In fashioning these understated ambient settings, he recorded the hiss of cassette and incorporated it into the background of all the tracks. As a result, an almost subliminal layer of hiss can be heard whispering behind the instruments, making it sound as if the latter are embedded within the former. The treatment gives his already inviting material an added warmth that only makes it more appealing. It would be a mistake to make too much of the production detail, however, as the focus is chiefly on the tracks' instrument sounds, melodies, and arrangements as opposed to any background texture.

Slightly blurry piano patterns shimmer hauntingly throughout “Dyszczowy Poranek Na Bytkowje,” after which, sounding as if it's wrapped in gauze, the softly sparkling piano sound heard during pieces such as “Bittkow,” “Gurnoslunskje Tragedyje,” and “Tamte Czasy” can't help but invite comparisons between Gwózdz's material and Harold Budd's, though it must be said that Gwózdz liberally expands upon his piano-based sound-world with violin flourishes and ethereal micro-textures. The graceful murmurings that flow through “Spumnyna,” on the other hand, wouldn't sound out of place on one of Eno's more becalmed ambient recordings. In marked contrast to the album's numerous soothing settings, sci-fi atmospheric treatments lend “Mysli Zasutego Bergmana” and “Utopek” a subtly macabre quality, as if the darker undercurrents lurking within Gwózdz's music are being granted brief exposure. Tamte Czasy doesn't rewrite the ambient rulebook, but nor does it strive to do so. But even if its aim is more modestly pitched, it nonetheless hits said mark splendidly. Taken on its own terms, the album's sultry piano serenades and ominous vignettes make for a potent combination.

February 2012