(2022) Billow Observatory - Stareside  


Review:
Stareside is the fourth album from Billow Observatory, a collaboration between Danish producer Jonas Munk, best known by his moniker Manual, and Jason Kolb, guitarist in Michigan-based ambient-rock band Auburn Lull. The duo has been making music together since 2006, and they released their self-titled debut on Felte back in 2012. Monk then released Plains/Patterns and Chroma/Contour on his own Azure Vista imprint in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Stareside is their return to Felte. It comprises 48 minutes of hazily drifting ambient immersion, peppered with enough rhythmic momentum to prevent the music from drifting off into the aether. As a fan of Auburn Lull, Kolb’s involvement in this project piqued my interest. His trademark pedalled, reverberating guitar swells are all over this music, harmonically enriched by synth pads and plenty of ambiguous textural details that bring some welcome grit to the luxuriant mix. Track titles “Wash Away the Dust” and “In a Stream” evoke the feeling that this music creates: of being cleansed, of surrendering to the flow. When rhythmic elements are introduced — such as the satisfyingly dirty bass on “Sink The Outlook,” the insistent knocking sound on “Vantage Low,” or the heart-like pulse of “Osar” — the album gently propels the listener between its more unmoored, drifting moments. With music this gentle, unhurried and subtle, the smallest details can raise the hairs on the back of your neck, such as the flute-like guitar loops on “Wash Away the Dust,” or the tremolo effect on the succinct “Havel.” The highlight of the album appears late in the tracklist. “Stareside” rides a delicate, metallic-sounding rhythm track, above which a buoyant synth arpeggio adds some charming color and movement. Guitars and synths weave to and fro across the track’s nearly nine minutes, mustering a lovely balance between movement and stasis that characterizes this album’s appeal.


   


Track List:
01 - Inner Citadel
02 - Sink the Outlook
03 - Vantage Low
04 - Wash Away the Dust
05 - Osar
06 - Havel
07 - Stareside
08 - Red Morning
09 - In a Stream


Media Report:
Genre: ambient
Country: Denmark / USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits


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