I gave you fair warning recently that Whitelabrecs are a reliable and prolific source of ambient music, and just to prove my point they’ve released seven albums in the last two months. Can you have too much of a good thing? Probably, unless you’re a blinkered ambientalist. With all my other musical interests I struggle to keep up, but the hushed tones of Polaroid Notes’ new LP are hitting the sweet spot today, so I thought I’d share.
After years of living away the album tries to make sense of the artists return to his southern German roots, as well as coming to terms with the onset of tinnitus, that scourge of so many musicians. It would certainly help explain the gentle nature of the recording, as he contemplates and navigates the creative process with the constant ringing as an unwelcome studio companion.
The recording is what I’d term ambient piano, though on the rare occasion he decides to string a few notes together in more recognisable patterns some of the tracks verge on modern classical, rather than the pleasing uber-minimalism he deploys on the majority of the album. Each key press certainly goes a long way - their judgement, execution and placement really is an impressive improvisational feat. But what really makes the LP stand out from the solo piano scrum is the delicate bleeding of those rare key presses into the soft post recording augmentation. The indiscernible field recordings and delicate, perfectly judged electronic additions bathe the open spaces in a low, warm glow and sound just perfect as I stare out of the window at the first Atlantic storm to batter my coastal home for a few months, and contemplate seasonal change.
As an aside, the weather is not all bad. I did notice that the air quality has returned to excellent again after a week of health warnings due to the particulates from last week’s forest fires: 70-100km south and 30km west, lingering in the air, obscuring the surrounding hills and dimming the sun. Eucalyptus really is a curse on Portugal’s fair land.
The album is a genuinely soporific listen, so please don’t listen whilst driving or operating heavy machinery. Rather I’d wait until everyone else has gone to bed and you’re sitting undisturbed in your favourite chair with a glass of something decent that you’ve been saving for the right moment.
Playlist Companion
If you haven’t dipped your toe in the Slow Ambient sound bath yet then it will be a fine extension to this LP.
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