CINCHEL "Sustain / Sustain"

I sit with a small stack of tapes before me and pick one from the top to begin the process. While i love the cassette medium and everything it means with the onslaught of music now available from the edges of the commercial spectrum, after all this tme I can be easily jaded.
Each tape I hold is the heartfelt work of an artist with every intention of broadcasting their unique message. I get this, and respect it.  Nonetheless, a good number of the tapes don’t make me jump out of my chair.

That’s why it’s so good to get my hands on something like this tape by cinchel. Sure, it’’s  ambient music and there is a lot of that around presently; but this is something more. Something that makes it different…special…great even. The artist himself describes it as an “…interaction of sounds/notes with themselves. With only the use of delay, layering and distortion.” It is all of that and none of that. The guitars don’t sound like guitars. The opening track, for example, sounds like falling out of an airplane and going up to heaven instead of falling to earth.  Incidently, it’s titled “a feeble attempt at trying to do anything.”  The following track, “Move toward the light” is a lot darker than the title suggests. Perhaps transgressing through storm clouds to attain the desired goal.

All in all, the tape has five offerings. Side two is consumed with one track: ”Trying to die more slowly today than I was yesterday (part I & II). Twenty four minuutes of trying….Succeeding I’d say. A brilliant collage of sound. A color mix swirling and growing then retracting. What a way to end a tape. cinchel has created a masterpiece of ambient music. If there is a better example of the genre having been released this year, I haven’t heard it. Highly recommended.

https://cinchel.bandcamp.com/album/sustain-sustain

-Robert Richmond

MIRROR OF NATURE “What the Photograph Reproduces to Infinity Has Occurred Only Once C67 (Muzan Editions)

This collab by ambient guitarist Cinchel and percussionist Mike Weis (joined by Neil Jendon, who recorded the album, on synthesizer for a track) feels ancient. Like it’s a prophecy, a scroll set to music. Or, if not a prophecy, then a document of divine wisdom. At least that. There’s something here that defies logic yet feels 100 percent rational. Spirituality meets tactile engagement. The esoteric hits the ground.

But then you get lost in the philosophical suggestions of the titular photograph, its infinite representation a false legitimacy disproved by actual events. Cinchel and Weis are your guides across maps and atlases, over windswept mirrors and frozen canvases. Their interplay is the compass and the magnetic fluctuations that throw off your direction. The holy divination becomes an ever-shifting endpoint among a deepening complexity.

And it’s incredibly difficult to get back on your original track. Good thing the diversions are equally fascinating.

https://cinchel.bandcamp.com/

https://theslowbell.tumblr.com/

https://muzaneditions.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan

MIRROR OF NATURE “What the Photograph Reproduces to Infinite Has Occured Only Once” C67 (Muzan Editions)

Been a big fan of Cinchel for a loooong time coming, and this collaboration with percussionist (Mike Weis) and Synthesizerer (Neil Jendon) finds me ever more enamored of his ability to wring cosmic, lulling waves from an electric guitar (and oodles and oodles of pedals, mind you) in thee most captivating, yet non-commanding ways, possible. No easy task! 

It’s as if (in the case of this particular release) C’s tones know juuuust how to accent his bandmates' surrounding tribal, ceremonial pulsations and mountain-cried modular drones. Again, No Easy Task! Completely melodically-evasive, “What the Photograph Reproduces…” is nevertheless infectious; it calls for no narrative, yet is transportive &, in itself, an unquestionable mental scaffold for communing with post-midnight desert breezes and shooting stars for-like-ever-on-outward, the soundscape’s movements eddying and dissipating into roving constellations’ absentiae, rebelling against connect-le-dot paradigms, period, or en ellipsis… 

Be apprised that this is brilliant cosmic-jamz chemistry at it’s most unmappable core, & I hope it isn’t sold out by the time this review reaches you. I played the damn thing until it petered out before wrangling the words to attempt to describe it. It’s now warbly beyond recognition…which is kinda just as cool, right?

https://muzaneditions.bandcamp.com/album/what-the-photograph-reproduces-to-infinity-has-only-occured-once

https://themirrorofnature.bandcamp.com/

and/or

http://cinchel.com/

— Jacob An Kittenplan

CINCHEL “In Chaos” C60 (Self-Released)

Chiraq’s Cinchel has been a stalwart ambient-drone guitarist for the better part of forever…or at least, like, a decade’s worth of moody-modulating worry/fuckit-scapes…and each and every goddamn one of his releases are truly stellar, in their own right.

As a longtime fan of Stars of the Lid, Bre’r, Windy & Carl, & the likes, I am always a-squeal-with-delight in seeing a Cinchel tape up for grabs at places like Econo Jam Records in Oakland, CA, or Skeleton Dust in Dayton, OH; & it cannot be understated that, despite the degree of melancholic/dissonant intensity, whatever emotional gestalt that Cinchel is working towards cobbling together, the entirety of his output is always mesmerizing and dizzying, no bones about it.

Rejoice in drone, get lost in tone, be host to unknown chords vying for reverberation within you. Cinchel plays the rever(b)s/e-exorcist; you be the vessel in headphones, & fight the good fight. 

https://cinchel.bandcamp.com/album/in-chaos

— Jacob An Kittenplan

CINCHEL “Sometimes You See Yourself..." (Notes + Bolts)"Worry" (self released)

"Sometimes You See Yourself (through the Cosmos)” C60 (Notes + Bolts)

Cosmic. Far out. These are the descriptors reserved for Cinchel’s Sometimes You See Yourself (through the Cosmos, and I cheated a little bit there, because “cosmic” is an adjective meaning “of or relating to the universe or outer space,” according to merriam-webster.com. And with track titles like “Takeoffs and Landings” and “Slightly Singing Stars” (and there are only two tracks anyway, both of which last thirty minutes), I bet you can’t figure out what this tape sounds like. Maybe I’ll end this review right here and let you go on a little internet scavenger hunt. Note your answers in the comments.

Ah, who am I kidding, I want to write more, because Cinchel, a Chicago-based recording artist, does his damnedest to approximate Musica universalis, the music of the spheres, the sonic reverberations of celestial objects. He usually does this with guitar, but on Sometimes You See Yourself, he features guest contributions from singing wine glasses, of all things! (Played, obviously, by himself.) Drones upon drones upon drones are layered and processed, and the result is nothing less than otherworldly. Where “Takeoffs and Landings” spends its thirty minutes traveling through the universe, “Slightly Singing Stars” backs off a bit, allowing the glasses to literally “sing” alone and establish their sentience within the vacuum. It’s gorgeous.

Merriam-webster.com also defines “cosmic” as “relating to spiritual matters,” and there’s nothing better to do while listening to Cinchel than engage in a little introspection. Strap on some headphones and feel wickedly small when you consider your place in the universe. Let all manner of energy wash over you as you patiently await your chance to join and become one with it. It’s pretty humbling stuff, and Cinchel taps that vein. So whether you’re interested in the rush of an interstellar blast or simply ready to return to stardust, you’ll be helped along on your journey by Sometimes You See Yourself (through the Cosmos). Cosmic, indeed.

Cinchel

Notes + Bolts

--Ryan Masteller

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“Worry” C45 (Self-Released)

Dense, dense, dense, distilled moods a la drone-ambient from Chicago’s Cinchel. Unbeknownst, this ain’t artist’s first rodeo, either, bandcamp page hosting over two dozen releases. Pretty poignant stuff here. Looked webpage up and first thing, an Eliane Radigue quote. Figures. Damn good stuff here, indeed.

Side A runs 22.5 minutes. Nearly to the second. “Her ladder was run with the love of her friends” had me near-agitatedly blissful on an eyes-closed floor-sitting. So many major overtones swirling about all at once. Warm, deep, deep lows.  Sharp, crackly highs swooping in and out, several different mids interweaving subtly, softly. Again, all majors. Bright & shiny-like here.

Side B runs same time, but much opposite in theme. Nervous or scared? Worried shitless? “A light crack in the wall”, the title. Blood coming through that crack? Ancient whisperer of death threats? Maybe just me, just too damn macabre tonight? Could see a peaceful death in the Klondike sounding like this, too. Good stuff. Damn fine stuff. Find a comfy spot, cross the legs, lower lights, turn up. Oh, yes.

www.cinchel.com

- - Jacob An Kittenplan