Every so often, it’s fun to check on our friends at the Audio Gourmet netlabel. Their EPs – now 66 – are designed to be played during tea time. (In the U.S., we prefer coffee breaks, but the intention is the same.)
The latest installment by Senna (Katsuya Takahaki) is louder and more active than recent fare ~ if it’s tea, it’s certainly caffeinated. Bright guitar notes are joined by narrow swaths of drone, which bend like thin treetops in a gusty wind. The EP’s overall mood is motivational rather than contemplative, which brings us to its one unusual drawback: the music here does not match the artist’s statement of intent.
The purposeful blurriness of the titles (“Likely To Be Hidden”, “Be Not Here”, “Vagueness Evaporated Into The Atmosphere”), combined with the overall title, connote something nearly absent, like the last white wisp of a fading cloud. Yet the music is intensely and intentionally present, and was recorded at elevated volumes to produce a sense of fullness. Senna wants to be vague, but his music sounds specific. The irony is that this clarity of tone is rare in the ambient genre. We’re used to music that carries us on gossamer wings, not music that straps us to a hang glider and kicks us off a cliff.
To this reviewer’s amusement, it doesn’t matter what the artist has to say about his release. This is strong foreground music, even as it declares – loudly – that it is background music. By screaming, “I’m vague!”, it becomes the opposite. This tea break helps one to gather the energy to return to work – loaded with sugar and artificial sweeteners, and better off as a result. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 