ANTHÉNE
"Shifting Lands” C41
(Polar Seas Recordings)




Polar Seas Recordings (out of Toronto (Ontario, Canada)) specialize (with a hard S) in putting out mesmerizingly intricate ambient/drone/minimalist releases that are unbelievably inspiring for daydreamers, painters, or those who like to read Ray Bradbury and pause to imagine themselves alone on another planet. Pretty much every release I listened to (on their bandcamp site) would also fit perfectly as a substitute soundtrack for any space or nature documentary devoid of human beings.

Anthéne’s “Shifting Lands” doesn’t just stick to terrestrial, muddy drone-swells and seismograph-exciting grumble-textures.  Many a track also patiently incorporates plenty of multi-level’d, wispy, angelic swells (and on others, varying, dissonant drizzles) that hover high above thick, mid-low binaural floes, for maximum dynamics… and plenty of opportunities to play “now, exactly how many layers are going on here?” The end result is a hazy, hallucinatory drone-scape to take a relaxing (albeit lonely) mindwalk around in.

https://anthene.bandcamp.com/album/shifting-lands
and/or
http://www.polarseasrecordings.com/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan