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rises & falls by aero (staartje015)

rises & falls by aero (staartje015)

a review by e/n of
release format rises & falls by aero (staartje015) (junk)

text

This is the second and latest release of koen holtkamp, aka aero, co-founder of the New-York apestraatje label which focus is on mellow, drone-based electronic music. Previous releases have included [Japanese quartet] Minamo’s enchanting ‘Beautiful’, [Brendon] Anderegg and compilations featuring 12K Sebastien Roux, the Italian collage-duo Tu’m (as in Duchamp’s ‘Tu Aimes’, ‘You Love) amongst others.

On the opening two tracks - “rises” and “falls” - of this beautiful and smooth album, aero is joined by friend, and co-founder of the label, anderegg. The banjo drifting melody instantly sets the mood of the album by gently and steadily revealing neo-folk traces. In the meantime, aero quietly settles into the composition by discretely fusing his smooth ambient sound with the constant and steady chords. What might recall David Pajo (aka Aerial M and Papa M)’s simple guitar chords, softly blossoms into a wonderful droning electronic piece. Although the 12 minutes opening track does never actually take off, it manages to gradually and effectively take the listener into a magical and soothing landscape which is what makes this track so wonderful. The electronics embedded in aero’s work is as discreet as it can be, forming a gentle path which gradually unfolds over the entire album.

“rinse” and “coast” tend to be a more complex concrete electronic compositions whilst continuous crackling sounds are accompanied by background guitar drones and drifting melodies. The music is constantly layered unto soft textures hence maintaining us into a total somehow controlled acoustic tension.
“after”, the closing segment of this beautiful album reveals the genuine seeking of melodic drone-based sounds and concludes the journey on a marvellous fading note. A very well equilibrated and serene album reflecting apestaartje’s conception of electronic music. Once the music stopped, I realised this was one of those albums I simply had to play again straightaway to enjoy yet another ride. Highly recommended.

Posted by e/n at 16:21, 16 Feb 2004