YAIR ELAZAR GLOTMAN & MATS ERLANDSSON - Negative Chambers

The past is the only segment of time that belongs to itself as much as to others, continually absorbing and preserving the present moment while offering perspectives and opportunities to the future. Extrapolating elements from a remote era in an attempt to preserve their original form is a mirage chased by classicists unwilling to confront the challenges of their own time: history is an invaluable archive to be constantly drawn upon in order to act on the present and allow artistic expression to evolve.

A vast array of instruments from both the classical and folk traditions has been selected by Berlin-based transplant Yair Elazar Glotman and Swedish musician Mats Erlandsson to create an unprecedented project released by the decade-old dark label Miasmah: yet as painstakingly varied as the sounds are, the sonic material of these "rooms" is just as uniform, belonging to no particular moment in time. Violin, cello and double bass (already the protagonists of Glotman's "Études") mingle with instruments from ethnic groups of Islamic Africa (sintir, karbaka), as well as a zither, an acoustic steel guitar, a harmonium, a transistor radio, Tibetan bells and other resonant percussion.

Like thin filaments, the various overdubbed sources converge into a perspectival soundscape that ideally reconnects with the magical drone-folk of early Natural Snow Buildings, in a scenario that at times reverberates with an ineffable cosmic melancholy, and at others with the notes of a fateful prophecy devoid of any tragic sense.

"Negative Chambers" is indeed an album of atmosphere, but its dark, attractive power draws us inside it like a magnetic force that's hard to escape.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

23/06/2017