textura

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

Windy & Carl: We Will Always Be
kranky

There's something comforting about the appearance of a new recording from husband-and-wife duo Carl Hultgren and Windy Weber, with We Will Always Be their first in more than three years. And the reason that it is comforting isn't simply for musical reasons—though that's certainly a major part of it—it's also that their re-emergence signifies stability amidst rapid change. The commitment the two bring to their music and each other exudes hope in contrast to whatever turmoil seems to be rampant elsewhere; put simply, it's reassuring to be reminded that some things do last. The two are like seasoned pros who've long left behind any pressure to be anything but themselves and refined their approach to a point where it's as natural as breathing. Not only do the pair eschew trendiness (We Will Always Be ain't footwork or dubstep, in other words), they've pared their music down to an even more essential core on We Will Always Be, the duo's first since the release of their fourth kranky album Songs for the Broken Hearted.

Strip away the background churn of fuzzy noise textures and “For Rosa” would slot itself snugly into a vocal folk tradition that extends back half a century. Weber's soft voice elsewhere acts as a more atmospheric element, as part of the resonant textural flow chiming through “Remember,” for instance, where iridescent guitar swirls drift like cloud masses floating above while bass tones provide solid ties to the earth below. A similar approach emerges during “Nature of Memory” when undulating waves of guitars are accompanied by a grounding bass presence and the ghostly murmur of Weber's speaking voice. Beats and percussion are absent on the album, with the duo largely content to let their layers of heavily treated guitars do the talking (electric piano and organ also are heard on “The Smell of Old Books” and “Fainting in the Presence of the Lord,” respectively).

Though there are eight indexed tracks, the sixty-eight-minute set has been designed to flow uninterruptedly in a way that enhances its hypnotic effect. Strengthening that impression is the fact that much of the album is comprised of shimmering moodscapes perfectly capable of inducing reverie. That's especially true in the case of the two longest settings, “Looking Glass,” a twelve-minute swarm that plays like a never-ending rainshower of crystalline guitar textures and bass shudder, and “Fainting in the Presence of the Lord,” which caps the release with an expertly controlled, nineteen-minute slab of dronescaping that manages to be both majestic and raw.

February 2012