When I read of Earlyguard's upcoming release I got very excited... because he had collaborated with Julia Kotowski aka 'Entertainment for the Braindead'... someone whose music & life-force I greatly admire. It seemed an unusual combination... a master of delicate and immersive droning ambience, and a wonderful light in lo-fi acoustic folk music... but I had the utmost faith in Earlyguard's judgement and, after a run-through of the preview copy he gave me, I feel this confidence to be entirely justified.
"Amaya" is wonderfully immersive... with bright, open and expansive drones that work with and compliment a subtle field-recording of a distant bubbling thunderstorm and the incessant pouring of rain... to create the most glorious of ambient soundscapes.
This is headphone music at it's very best... deep and engaging... delicate yet riveting... a soundscape that captivates my very soul and brightens my day.
I know it would seem wrong to consider the natural refrain of a thunderstorm or the rhythm of torrential rain to be something that could brighten my day but I feel a greater connection to the world around me through this soundscape... a feeling that comes through being party to one of the great 'shows' of creation. There is a real sense of the awesome that transcends the 'here and now'... a feeling of great wonder amid deep mystery that gives this recording an almost spiritual and meditative quality.
I maybe wrong but I think this collaboration could be Earlyguard's best work to date. That said... he'll probably bring something out in November that will blow me away. He just gets better and better... and with the inclusion of Julia Kotowski... wow. The use of her voice in such a simple and hypnotic way is brilliant. It brings a new definition to the oft used word... ethereal.
This recording is simply first class and well recommended.
Tx
"Amaya" will be released on 1st October 2011 through Earlyguard's Bandcamp page.
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