kj: saturnalia
Polar Seas
Igor Yalivec: Still Life
Polar Seas
Two new artist additions to Polar Seas significantly enhance the label's reputation for world-class ambient products. Though the label is Toronto-based, kj (Kj Rothweiler) and Igor Yalivec are rooted in New York and the Ukraine, respectively. Other kj releases have appeared on Lost Tribe Sound, Dronarivm, Own, and Gailur Records, but saturnalia is a particularly fine example of his artistry and for those new to his work a superb entry-point. On his fifth full-length, four tracks appear totaling forty minutes, with the opener “clouds” folding the album's style into a two-minute statement. Delicate swathes of gossamer tones drift placidly, enveloping the listener in a warm embrace and instating a peaceful atmosphere despite the track's brevity. Arriving fast on its heels is “silverine,” the longest of the four at nineteen minutes and naturally an even more immersing construction. Grainy washes interweave with brightly lit synth tones in a continuing dance that at peak volume proves especially arresting. The effect of the music is akin to that moment when your plane has just ascended above the clouds and you feel as if everything's moving at half the normal speed; still, while the presentation is generally soothing, there are passages where turbulence arises and the elements threaten to swell violently. Peacefulness is reinstated for the second side's title cut, which undulates at a gentle hush for six minutes before stepping aside for “waters.” Sombre and elegiac, the piece finds Rothweiler relocating his sound to an orchestral realm where strings murmur tremulously. Always visually attuned to the content of its releases, Polar Seas has made saturnalia available in a misty clear vinyl pressing (100 copies) that's wholly complementary to the music's ethereal character.
Though Yalivec created Still Life with modular synths and field recordings, the range of sounds presented in its eight pieces extends beyond what one might expect from such sound sources. A combination of soft synthetic strings and what sound like gently plucked guitar strings emerges repeatedly—the latter in particular an unexpected detail considering the gear involved. We're told that the album “was inspired by the beauty of old villages in the Carpathian forests of Ukraine, with their unhurried pace of life, calming atmosphere and wild nature,” and the peacefulness implied by such a scenario is heard in Yalivec's music. At album's beginning, the faint ripples of nature sounds provide a near-subliminal complement to the peaceful aura of “Campanula,” here already the blend of plucks and synth washes imbuing the material with peacefulness. The slightly more animated flow of picking in “Papaver” and “Convallaria” introduces a folk-country ambiance, while the graininess of the surrounding swirl maintains the connection to ambient soundscaping. Though titled “Viola,” the piece doesn't part company from the others, but instead hews to a similar sound design template, with in this instance tweeting birds and droning synth tones merging with gentle plucks to uphold the overall character. During “Aster,” synthesizer flurries shimmer like glistening dewdrops, the effect so evocative you might well imagine you've been transported into an early morning nature setting. As the album moves into its final settings, it begins to seem even more as if electric guitar's involved, even if modular synthesizer's the sound source. Issued in a 100-copy edition on clear vinyl, Still Life conveys stillness yet is very much alive too. While they're considerably different from one another, both saturnalia and Still Life are recordings one can easily get lost in, surely part of their creators' intentions for the releases.October 2021