What: “Crepuscular Borders” by Flooba
Netlabel: batenim netlabel
Last week I posted a story about an artist on the Nostress Netlabel. Afterwards, Nostress reached out to me to let me know they have another label called “batenim” which they described as “a small netlabel for artists interested only in digital publications of album…no live events or performances offered.” Of course I checked it out. I’m so happy they clued me in because it led me to their latest release by Flooba.
Flooba (actually, Adriano Sorbello) is an electronic ambient musician based in Bologna, Italy. I’d describe his album “Crepuscular Borders” as uneasy ambient. It’s filled with natural sounds (some treated) along with pleasant instrumentation, but there are also elements throughout that are slightly abrasive or aggressive. It’s a nice juxtaposition.
The track “Private Departures” is a perfect example of this mix. Beautiful bell-like keyboard notes are tapped out slowly and mixed with treated background noise of city streets? Airports? I’m not sure what the sounds are but it’s a bit of an unsettling combination. “Bells of the Riot” is another good one; it sounds like an outdoor metal wind chime being pushed around by the wind as birds are singing, until some sort of machinery asserts itself. Then, half way through, a subtle but persistent electronic rhythm pattern emerges to drive everything along to the song’s conclusion.
The last song is “Quiet Days in a Domestic Context.” It features slow metallic synth washes and notes combined with what mostly sounds like wind through the trees, with perhaps some water mixed in. Electronic sounds dominate while water/wind ebbs and flows throughout this long, slow piece. It may be the calmest track in some ways, but still has an edge. The wind really picks up at the end and takes us out. Is a storm coming, or just the calm after?
This netlabel focuses on “meditative, relaxing, dreamy ambient music; soundscape for indefinite and abstract places. Organic, ethereal, and mind altering… where the expressive power lies in the ability to create surreal atmospheres.” batenim, by the way, is an anagram of the word ambient. And who doesn’t like a good anagram? Ambient pioneer Brian Eno does (“King’s Lead Hat,” anyone?). Just sign me “Bat Leer Opera Ditz.”