Reviews

Igloo Mag

The action is constantly engaging, the emotional expressions change and develop, sometimes microscopic in detail and rich with invention, the mood is very consistently slow and relaxing in several tracks, and slightly more energized on other tracks. There are interesting distortions and effects, and a smoothly flowing extended time feeling, overall the slow pace replaces or releases tension with ingenuity. There are some field sounds layered in places, the sound of fire, the sounds of all sorts of birds, electronic and otherwise.

It is night, there are bugs signaling, and as this is electronic music, there is a pulse boogie happening on this first track, which is something electronica does well. I am sometimes finding interesting patterns and gigantic restless landscapes. Sometimes like a mountain in the distance getting larger. The Strangebird~Sounds experience does birds and night bugs really well. “You Are Here” (4:56). Listening provides release from agitation, you can soar freely, a sight-seeing excursion for your headphones.

This electronic atmosphere of sound can be sometimes a tonic, sometimes it helps to relax, sometimes to prepare to take off and power up, sometimes to go to sleep and distract your worried mind. There are hypnotic electronic pulses exploring tonality, and there is an amplitude of space, very little melody with lots of tonality, plenty of depth, arranged for interesting electronic listening. There is a keyboard, sometimes a guitar, and lots of moments played backwards, layered in, and unusual bird-like calls, tucked in here and there. The second track is the title track, “Lavender River” (5:12). This is showy and amazing, walking along the river during the magic moments of early eventide. The night bugs are beginning to purr, there is peace and it is freely flowing. “Warm Soil” (4:58) has a throb and flicker feeling. “Surface Dust” (4:56) explores the keyboard wilderness, signaling notes without melodic constraint, there is a pulse and a subtle constant nervous raspy subtext which makes the dust. There might be the sound of a campfire. Maybe we are walking on sticks while watching the lightshow overhead.

Dark and still, things simmer and then cool ::

Shy night bugs, heard as if on a crackly old 78 rpm player. Things pick up and get twitchy, but low key nervous; the action takes place in a big echoey room, things are flying around in different ways. There is the sound of that scratchy vinyl disk, and the wind-off. “Momentarily” (4:07) is also fidgety in places, the general trajectory is interesting and relaxing, there are a lot of tiny notes. Slow and spooky, this next track is through hidden territory, “Old Map” (4:14), I think it has a big open planetarium sound, perfect for looking up at the jewels in the darkest artificial night. Deep within the caverns, leading upwards into chambers with bigger ceilings, no limits. Always moving, no beats or pulse, “Flowing” (4:27) has a sleepy fuzzy presence, and the notes flit about like small fishes. Dark and still, things simmer and then cool: “End Of The Path” (4:17), the river is near. Peace abounds.

Strangebird~Sounds Is Gregory Geerts, an experimental composer/sound artist based in the city of Antwerp, Belgium. The title Lavender River is an invention by Gregory’s wife. There is indeed a river in their hometown, the Schelde, and on rare summer sunsets, it yields a lavender hue. Strangebird~Sounds collects this life experience through audio. Field recordings feature from his many walks through cities, towns and countryside. Ambient microsound combines with electronics to support a complete listening experience taking in and combining elements and views. This sometimes meditative, electro-acoustic approach, the patchwork of sounds are almost ASMR-like and are perfect to be focused or creative.

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Organ Thing

Strangebird~Sounds Is Gregory Geerts, an experimental composer and sound artist based in the city Antwerp, in Belgium. This new album, Lavender River, we’re told, “brings a flowing journey through unchartered landscapes, dreamscapes and a timeless adventure”, what we actually have is a very (very) mellow electronic album, warm mellow melodies, smooth textures, found sound atmospherically flowing quietly beneath the surface, all very (v ery) easy on the ear, all very nice, refreshing, simple, uncluttered. It isn’t anything that revolutionary, it isn’t anything that different, we get lots of thing kind of thing in our constantly busy inbox but it is really refreshing, Lavender River has something to it, it is a rather enjoyable instrumental album, a warm piece of sound art, some mellow composition and a little bit more that the background music it could so easily be.

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Audion

Although created via very different methods, using resampling, granular synthesis and suchlike, many of the patterns and textures heard in LAVENDER RIVER tend to remind me of an early 1990s Robert Rich classic called GEOMETRY. The differences in technique, however, which incorporates glitching elements and fragmentation also makes the music relate to electroacoustics, and some of the stuff Jim Tetlow once did when using Spektral Delay software. Beyond that, the music on this release is original, bridging both the melodic and amelodic, the pretty and dissonant, the beautiful and chilling. These contrasts and contradictions all add up to give it a unique character.

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Luminous Dash

Er zijn zo van die bezoekers uit onze Belgische elektronische regio’s die onmiddellijk de aandacht naar zich toe trekken met een zowel een comfortabele als tintelende luisterreis. Antwerpenaar Gregory Geerts is de geluidskunstenaar achter Strangebird~Sounds. Hij houdt zich sinds jeugdige leeftijd bezig met elektronische muziekexperimenten. De titel van het album Lavendel River is geïnspireerd door de zeldzame zomerse zonsondergangen die de Schelde (bij Antwerpen) een lavendelachtige tint bezorgt.

Lavendel River is een gezellig aanvoelend potje ambient met mooie geluidstexturen waar af en toe een stofwolkje met experimentele korrels van veldopnames en modulaire pulsen doorheen waait. Het gefriemel en gefrutsel dat tussen de soundscapes drijft, neemt ons mee naar diverse mooie klanklandschappen. Geerts kan uit de vele veldopnames putten die hij tijdens talloze wandelingen in de stad en de natuur opnam. Hij kneedt deze audio levenservaringen samen met een klomp elektronica tot een zweverige geluidsdeeg die rustig in alle richtingen kan rijzen.

Strangebird~Sounds plaatst zich met Lavendel River op de Belgische top ambientkaart. Het album heeft een verfrissend geluid met voldoende ruimte voor avontuurlijke zijsprongetjes waar veel te beleven in valt. We verwittigen graag de liefhebbers voor het verdwaal- en (meditatieve) verslavingsrisico die deze verrassende ambientrelease in petto heeft. Zoete snoep voor de elektronische muziekliefhebbers.

Read original > HERE