Kategorie: CD-Reviews | Genre: Ambient | Heft: Jahrgang 2014, eclipsed Nr. 157 / 2-2014 | VÖ-Jahr: 2014 | Wertung: 7/10 | Label: Denovali | Autor: CA
For two albums Alicia Merz spoiled us with her idiosyncratic sounds, almost throttled to standstill. Shortly after the floating "Without The World" was followed by the somewhat darker "Winter Lady", this time it took more than two years for the New Zealander to add a work under her pseudonym Birds Of Passage. Like the first two records, which suggested it in their titles, "This Kindly Slumber" is also made for the dark season. Merz breathes her messages ("Ashes To Ashes", "Take My Breath" or "And All Of Your Dreams"), which are already included in her titles, through hushed up sound surfaces, which create foggy headscapes and can also become considerably denser at times. "Yesterday's Stains" comes as transcendent pseudoblues, as a kind of prayer under a clear starry sky. "Lonesome Tame" stretches and expands the silence that has become sound to at least ten minutes. The listener will definitely find peace in the most positive sense here.
Top track: Yesterdays's Stains
