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PARALL 021CD
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2011 release. Hailing from Denmark, Syntaks aka Jakob Skøtt and Anna Celilia's previous releases with record labels like Benbecula, Darla, Ghostly International, and Morr Music have all been great pieces of musical works in themselves and so are the musical projects they been involved in with, such as the likes of Jonas Munk of Manual, etc. This latest offering on Parallax Sounds Records is perhaps the broadest ranging Syntaks album to date. It is a massive effort in terms of both style and length, cultivated over a range of a few years. Nachtblende is the fully-realized scope of two Danish lover's vision -- a vision far removed from the minimalist design and grey skies of Scandinavia. On the masculine side you got your wall of feedback guitars, swirling arpreggios and dead-pan, dusty beats -- all rising, crackling and disappearing into the hemisphere. But what brings the creative counter-spark is the muted piano, haunted acoustic guitar-picking and wordless soprano sighs of Anna Cecilia. If making picturesque or cinematic music seems like a concept of the past, Nachtblende is an attempt to rewrite history on its own terms. Forging a gap between overdriven circuitry and minimalist ambient repetition, Nachtblende moves through the past 30 years of music on its own unique path. Drawing on the milestones of Brian Eno and Steve Reich, as well as the Bibio/Takoma-styled folk guitar-playing, the ambient textures of Syntaks doesn't stop there -- film composers Ennio Morricone, Popol Vuh and John Carpenter flutters through the sonic architecture of the album as well. And then there's the full scope of multi-layered psychedelic pop and Kraut-rock as well as the muffled shoegaze-esque cacophony of sounds, so expect similarities to artists like Boards Of Canada, Cocteau Twins, M83, My Bloody Valentine, Seefeel, Slowdive, Ulrich Schnauss, etc. In the end, everything is forged together in a phat, inseparable synthesized mix that is as delicate and fragile as it is dense and ear-shattering. The seemless mix of the turbulence on the surface and the pressure from the bottom is what makes Syntaks an uninhibited display of vibrant emotions, conjured by its creators' inner lives.
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BEN 032CD
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This is Denmark-based Jakob Skøtt's full-length debut under his Syntaks alias. Skøtt has been a lifelong collaborator with friend Jonas Munk more recently on his Manual project, as well as their first release on Morr Music as members of the band Limp. A couple of years later the duo released under their own names for the album Golden Sun on Darla. Jakob is also part of the four-piece Causa Sui with a release on Germany's Nasoni. Where the previous collaborations with Manual have featured soporific hip-hop beats and melting soundscapes, Awakes sees Syntaks explore more varied territories. The ten track album clocks in just under 50 minutes and journeys into an expertly-crafted concoction of seductive dub, guitar pop, leftfield beats and Slowdive-esque washes of guitar with the slightest hint of Cocteau Twins at their best. Awakes is a broad-brush stroke of accomplished, grandiose electronics that transports to wonderful netherworlds -- a soundtrack to navigating deserts alone, hallucinating glittering digital oasis after digital oasis.
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