One of the finest albums of its leftfield kind released in recent months, Fennesz’s ‘Black Sea’ is a wonderful collection of ambient sounds and enveloping instrumentals.
The record – the Austrian’s fourth, available via Touch – has attracted its maker comparisons with the likes of Brian Eno and Stars Of The Lid. While the old analogy of music taking you on some kind of journey is almost exclusively rubbish, here it makes a degree of sense: listen from start to finish and you do feel moved, that’s for sure. Perhaps not physically. That would be odd.
First coming to prominence in the 1990s in the IDM arena, in recent times Fennesz – first name Christian – has explored music beyond the boundaries of conventional composition. Art school trained, he finds the sounds that so often fall between the gaps in so much so-called avant-garde music. The textural element of his music cannot be undersold – its rises and falls deliver both warmth and discomfort, but always maintaining a delicate balance.
‘Saffron Revolution’ is the closing track of ‘Black Sea’. Listen below, read our review of ‘Black Sea’ HERE, and we’ll see you for a very different Track of the Day tomorrow.
Whatever it is, after this it will seem very different.
