Akumu – Descent

Akumu - Descent

When music is described as ‘organic’, this will often refer to a warm, almost acoustic and almost  ‘live’ sound.
On Descent“, Akumu (Deane Hughes, Toronto, Canada) has a different approach in describing organic structures in sound.

The basic material comes from ‘field recordings’ (but do NOT imagine birds or crickets here):
“based on field recordings captured within train stations, banks and other large buildings, these four pieces re-synthesize and reduce those grand structures into the infinitesimal — the real into the abstract.
“Descent” is the continuation of Akumu’s study of resonances and micro-sonics found in our everyday world.

There are four tracks on this album. The first three, taking up 31 minutes, are called “The Hive” – as depicted on the (fascinating!) cover artwork that accurately symbolizes the music you can expect to hear.
High-pitched electronics, suggesting a ‘grand structure’ but impossible to relate to their original sources.

“Descent”,
the 24 minute title track that closes the album, slowly introduces lower region rhythmic pulses before gradually becoming an immersive surrounding of electronic noisefields.

For the approach to sound, and being much more ‘electronic’ than what is usually called ‘ambient music’ , Descent”  will definitely appeal to listeners familiar with the Raster-Noton electronic music releases.

Definitely worth checking out, especially since Descentis a free download from the Panospria netlabel.


Akumu- The Hive (Part 2)

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