ASettingSun+Johann+Bissonnette+Hecker
Jay Bodley aka A Setting Sun has been on the blog before with his cover of Air’s Le Soleil Est Pres de Moi but that sound is far different from what he’s brewing which is more of a textured doom metal that you’d find from an artist like Ulver with hints of what a non-metal fan would call beautiful. Raspberry is a song that could be split up into multiple sections where you start off with the unforgiving coldness of the intro and lets you enjoy a bit of familiar acoustic guitar and then fades into an almost ceremonial muted brother of the intro, its grey yet ends on a restful feeling that everything has calmed down.
The mysterious grace that Johann Johannsson shares with us reminds me of what a mad man would hide from anyone that feared him to not show that he has such a passionate side. Think if Tangerine Dream had to make a dark classical piece with Jan Jelinek without beats or glitches.
The label Kranky can never do me wrong, you dig in their back catalog and just find treasures and one song that I found from this Christopher Bissonnette LP made me happy that there were such things as good A+R.
Tim Hecker is a hero in my mind to lo-fi ambient, if I ever drowned this better be playing so its as bittersweet as I could ever imagine it being.
Take your time with these songs if you really want to enjoy them, if this sound isn’t something you usually listen to then I suggest listening to it alone, yet close to you but not overwhelming yourself. Try listening to it as background sound quietly then try listening to it noticing every detail, you might realize how much goes into making this sound appealing.
11 Comments Leave A Comment
Vegard says:
January 12, 2010 at 5:36 amWhat do you mean by if you ever drowned? Like that this would be the music for the documentary? I don’t know mister, I am leaning towards Green Army Fraction.
NEOkeitaro says:
January 12, 2010 at 6:09 amAs always, nice collection of songs to begin the day… I’ll dig in more in those ones though, as my first listen certainly wasn’t enough to get everything.
By the way, did you hear Rhian Sheehan’s “Standing in Silence”? It’s an ok album, but the part 2 really sounds like a Tycho song… I got the same feeling than when I recognize a sample from a movie or a totally different song than the one I’m listening to.
Anyway, keep the music rockin’, because we are all loving it ;)
Kevin says:
January 12, 2010 at 7:47 amyeah, Tim Hecker and Loscil are my “go-to” ambient artists. very nice…. Hecker’s Isis remixes are fantastic as well.
Matt says:
January 12, 2010 at 11:23 amAh, it is a wonderful time for ambient fans – there’s just an embarrassment of riches out there. Max Richter’s score for “Waltz with Bashir” continues to haunt me, nearly a year after I first saw it (particularly the dream sequence with Richter’s piece “Shadow Journal” – amongst the most perfect fusions of sound and image I’ve ever seen). Hecker is someone I’ve been meaning to check out, but for some reason I never got around to it – thanks for the post.
grey says:
January 12, 2010 at 11:28 amThat cover are is really wonderful.
Kevin says:
January 12, 2010 at 6:57 pmI’m really liking these ambient posts. Time to look up their work. Thanks!
Shane says:
January 12, 2010 at 9:42 pmLove Hecker. Been a while, but love to come back anytime for his fantastic sounds.
Timothy Long says:
January 14, 2010 at 2:02 pmHecker is terrific. He must be a LOST fan.
Omer says:
January 19, 2010 at 3:55 pmThanks for introducing me to Jóhann Jóhannsson.