As I look southwards out of my open window, across terracotta tiled roofs and the seasonably blue River Lima to the distant tree clad hills of the Minho coast, I can’t imagine a better soundtrack than the new split LP from Of the Night Sky & Jean-Emmanuel Rosnet. During the greyer winter months I’ll perhaps reach for something slightly more melancholic and introspective, but this morning’s blue skies and autumnal sun deserve something a touch brighter. It certainly helps that both artists have a fine knack of incorporating natural recordings into their work to soften their machine sounds and tantalise the housebound with hints of the great outdoors, whilst paying serious attention to sonic details that will reward headphone listeners in particular.
Wisely, being the easier of the two suites, Of the Night Sky gets the ball rolling; augmenting his ambient swathes with twinkling tones or gentle piano presses - the perfect pathway for the somnambulant listener to approach the slightly less ignorable transmission from Rosnet, whose tones are a tad more penetrative, transitions slightly more hurried and frequencies oscillating that bit quicker. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not going to make you bite your lip rather than your toast - everything is relative, it’s also a very pleasant Sunday suitable soundscape that will ease you gently into the day.
The other day I encouraged readers to open up a Bandcamp fan account so they could follow ambient labels, and I neglected to mention Handstitched amongst my starter recommendations, but the label regularly floats my horizontal boat, unsurprising as it’s run by the equally reliable Maps and Diagrams. Not all artist run labels end well, but he’s done a wonderful job, both his recordings and the label are well worth exploring.
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