Thomas Trueman - Aeons Apart (Soundghost)

*** This blog post first appeared in TSMM's April 16th Newsletter, where you can get all the tips (and more) first ***

Thomas Trueman has had some recording success with his Dokkodo Sounds project, which is as pleasant a mainstream chill-out listen as you’ll find, although rather too shiny and commercial for my personal tastes. Apparently with this new material under his real name he’s revealing his true essence and, despite probably regretting it financially, at least I’m now a fan.

There’s still an easy accessibility to these ambient recordings and, apart from the Nordic black metal community, I can’t imagine it upsetting too many people. It’s also one of those albums that you can either hit play and park up on the sofa with a book or Instagram feed, or don your headphones and slip inside the artisanal soundscape to marvel at the impressive sonic detailing and electroacoustic joys as Trueman rediscovers his first love - the acoustic guitar, and invites it to his new world of machine music, sample manipulation, deftly placed field recordings and granular processing.

There’s still a few hints of Dokkodo Sounds here and there: a few auto-tuned vocal samples and occasionally some editorial playlist friendly looping, but negligible gripes aside it’s a beautifully crafted, gently flowing foray into blissful ambient realms which might be a tad shiny for a few cassette recorder owning ambient purists, but will undoubtedly appeal to many, me included.

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Playlist Companion

Find Trueman in good company amongst the sofa dwellers of the Slow Ambient Playlist.