|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LP
|
|
GBR 032LP
|
After a year of enforced isolation, everyone has become experts at introspection. After all, if the outlook is grim, why not look inwards instead? Just don't be surprised when all that naval gazing gives you a bellyache. Luckily, Cass. is back on the Growing Bin Records with the beguiling beauty of Ambient Music For A Young Girl, a soothing set which demands your full attention. In the era of deserted dancefloors, when the house and techno crowd export uninspired ambient to keep the streams flowing, Cass. offers an alternative approach to slow listening straight from the heart. Niklas came to Basso with a wealth of sensuous sounds to curate for a new LP, and these six expressionistic vignettes sit together like paintings at an exhibition. All born from the same brush but varied in tone, texture, mood and approach, they achieve an immersive effect without ever fading into the background. Sonic synonyms of Rothko, Turrell and Kapoor, each imbued with hidden depth, each utterly compelling, each conveying a profound calm. Escape your ego with some foreground music.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
HOMEN 072CD
|
In 2014, Pieter from Ghent-based tape label Dauw recommended Osnabrück artist Cass. to Home Normal for the release of Magical Magical. Born in 1991, Niklas Rehme-Schlüter (aka Cass.) began self-releasing music in 2010. To date his work has been released on small tape and vinyl editions, with his new release for Home Normal the first CD pressing of his work. Featuring collaborators Altars Altars, Miriam Jolene, Emily Cross (Cross Record), Emil Hewitt, and Moritz Leppers, Magical Magical is a playful album of electronic music, brimming over with melodies, ideas, and youthful tenderness. A near filmic equivalent would perhaps be the work of Hayao Miyazaki with his focus on the hidden depths of spirit through the innocence of childhood. It marks quite the turn from his previous meditative works, such as Loops & Farewell Sketches (2013), and shows just how talented this artist is. For a more specific note, the concept of 神隠し (Kamikakushi, translates literally to "hidden by spirits" or "spirited away") really comes into play. Again, this idea comes from the genius of Miyazaki, but the idea basically stems from the concept of a liminal journey through a realm of gods and spirits, specifically the unknown journey taken by children as they are taken by gods, often re-appearing after this physical disconnect at a temple or shrine days later. This pre-modern Japanese concept is often more modernly represented as the path from childhood through to adulthood, but the pre-modern focus of innocence, the unknown, and ethereal antiquity somehow encompasses the aptly titled Magical Magical with its focus on such ideas as light, dreams, love, and, finally, death (as finite or infinite as that may well be).
|