Drift by Hannu Karjalainen
Beautifully rich Ambient explorations
Hannu Karjalainen has been my night time refuge of late, his new album Drift proving the perfect companion for end-of-day contemplation. Following last year's A Handful Of Dust Is A Desert on Karaoke Kalk, the Finnish artist returns with more hypnagogic compositions, this time on Kingdoms (the label run by Francis Harris).
A spellbinding ambience takes grip on opener Sermon To The Birds, its gently picked guitar vibrating sensuously atop low soaring synths. As the album progresses, over a further six tracks of gloriously mutating soundscapes, Karjalainen masterfully works layers of intricate sound and texture into his dreamy, airy melodies. Birds sing with a synthesiser choir on Nightfall. Sunless is like a rush of handsome adrenaline. Muffled voices talk semi-conscious Dub on Untitled #34, with a heartbeat in your ears for good rhythm. On Carniverous Flower a crackling old record and spacey drones combine in the image of a time-lapse film of the subject in devastating action.
Tiny events packed together, tensions releasing, consciousness dissipating, we find ourselves less and less aware... drifting off.
- Rating: 9/10
- Listens: 17
- Highlight: Untitled #34
- Label: Kingdoms
- Release Date: 16th November 2018