After two excellent records in 2016 for Posh Isolation, Mats Erlandsson returns with a collaboration album on Miasmah. Last year we were thrilled by the awesome drone / electronic / experimental outputs “Valentina Tereshkova” and “Selective Miracles”. This new collaboration sounds not different in every way but you will recognize the fine details.
It sounds like a combination between folk and drone elements. The basic mood on “Negative Chambers” is gloomy and oppressive. It starts with the slowly guitar based “Cornelian Cities”, that fades into an alarming background noise in the end. Follow on track “Orchid Sedation” starts in a similar way but it takes his time. It is such a beautiful melody that will not again leave your mind! This basic mood is like a red line on “Negative Chambers”. The album uses a massive range of instruments including steel-guitar, zither, harmonium, gimbri, transistor radio and Tibetan singing bowls to conjure a sound that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. There is some incredibly detailed and wide sound design encompassing the pieces, from the pictural stillness of Orchid Sedation to the unnerving mass of dissonant strings on Ceramic Relic. Glotman & Erlandsson are masters in creating a sound filled with solitude, anxiety and intrigue. Recorded both independently and in very close correspondence between Stockholm and Berlin, Negative Chambers is a dialog between the two composers and manages to be both a meditative reflection on the past while also presenting a surreal and detailed piece of contemporary music. Maybe “Negative Chambers” do not fit in the modern world, but anyhow it feels like a modern tone experience from start to finish. If you are interested in dark ambient music you should not miss this record!
_space_for_reviews_ 