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Ten Questions with: KILN
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Kate Simko's Top 10

Albums
Abrahams + Cooper
Aloof Proof
Ananda Project
Auburn Lull
Evan Bartholomew
Tomasz Bednarczyk
Craig Bethell
Christopher Bissonnette
Bitcrush
Peter Broderick
Gavin Bryars
Cecilia::eyes
City Rain
Claro Intelecto
Cloudland Canyon
Datassette
Event Plot / G L Mr Gorsky
The Flashbulb
Flica
Sascha Funke
Further Details
Carlos Giffoni
Glowworm
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James T. Cotton
Mary St John
KILN
Jasper Leyland
Ljudbilden & Piloten
Francisco López
Daniel Menche
Miguel Migs
Mochipet
Pridon
Strategy
subtractiveLAD
Kuniyuki Takahashi
Urban Soul
Rick Wade

Compilations / Mixes
Ambient Not Not Ambient
A Number of Small Things
Apparat
B.I.P.P.P.
Garden of Forking Paths
Wait til the Ice Melts
You Don't Know

3" / 7" / 10" / 12" / EPs
Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia
Dabrye
Death is Nothing to Fear 3
Manuel De Lorenzi
DINTF EP
Domink Eulberg
Simon Haydo
Alton Miller
MLZ
Nos Phillipé
Peverelist
Van Rivers
Sebrok
Kate Simko
Ralph Sliwinski
Telepaticos

KILN: Thermals
Infraction

KILN's Thermals isn't a rushed sequel to last year's Dusker but rather “sonic-carousels, tonesheets, loopstrata, and slo-wave microsymphonies” created between 1993 and 2000 (and originally issued in 2001 in an edition of 100). Furthermore, an inner sleeve detail clarifies that most pieces were “rescued from quarter-inch tape obscurity via hard-disk editing and digital-audio restoration software.” And how fortunate we are that such a rescue operation happened, for the re-issued Thermals features a bounty of beautiful miniatures (twenty-three, to be precise), almost every one of which checks in at about two minutes in length. This is a radically different-sounding KILN than the expansive and robust outfit heard on Dusker; Thermals is a more reserved and austere collection that in its evocative ambient character reminds one of Eno's Music For Films.

KILN's vignettes opt for meditative stillness rather than narrative exposition, and, untethered by rhythms and beats, Thermals parades one beatific reverie after another, with each briefly take the stage and then quickly yielding it to the next over a fifty-five-minute span. Despite their brevity, many pieces are haunting, including the luminous “Charms of Beautiful Natural Girls” and “Universalfemalebreathchoir” whose exhalations evoke cloudy breath patterns forming on glass. “The Ice Floes” is as hushed as a muffled choir of Gregorian chanters perfecting a labyrinthine melody while “Crackling Theatre Walls” features see-sawing strings and crackle that escaped from either a silent film cinema or Philip Jeck's laboratory. The album also includes vaporous dronescapes (“ A Place in Between”), shimmering holograms (“Drala,” “Pureloveplate”), and iridescent meander (“Compassion”). Though individual pieces leave impressions, Thermals' ethereal communications make their strongest impression when experienced en masse. When one factors Sunbox, Twinewheel, and Holo [re/lux] into the equation, it's clear that KILN is slowly building up an amazing body of work that's free of missteps or filler.

April 2008