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