Gydja
Umbilicus Maris
Mystery Sea 2007
01. Beyond the Earth's Edge
02. The Wave, with Red Stain Running
03. Snakestone
04. A Siren Stood Hymning upon Each Circle
05. Cold Water Flowing Forth
5AM seemed just the right time to meet Gydja - right between dusk and crack of dawn. Her music is elusive, sometimes mysterious, yet distinct/tangible enough not to completely isolate the listener. Much like the cover art (or maybe this whole blog), it's also a blend of light & darkness in a proper balance. Some parts are otherwordly, surely, but there's hardly any eeriness or threat to shake you out of comfort zone. Most and foremost, Gydja (old Norwegian word for "priestess") has followed a sound I've long had in my mind and dreams: that of gently gurgling water; quite expected from a NZ artist and the label Mystery Sea. Many ambient/electronic people tend to stick aquatic references to music - which is fine, though it's not always "water" what we're really hearing. With Umbilicus Maris, the first thing I can imagine is a Rhizostoma (another well-exploited victim in the world of electronics - see Phonem or say CBLifeforms), as an analogy for movement/immobility, amorphic/dynamic, soft/defined, etc. And like the octopus, the album can be strange, calm, cold... a matter of subjective experience, beyond the overall (rather high) quality.
>> gsize / mfire (69mb) (d-_-b)>> love it, buy it (Mystery Sea)
Umbilicus Maris is very oceanic, aquatic, even sub-aquatic. The rhythm is tidal, a subtle pulse, a gradual swell, the sounds shift and shimmer like light through water, and of the handful of Mystery Sea releases, Umbilicus Maris is the loudest and most active. That's in no way to infer that this is anything but drifting blissy ambience. It most certainly is, but the sounds are not lowercase. Not barely audible. You can hear them, feel them, peer inside and around, can experience the sound physically, get lost inside the sound. A pair of headphones is all you need to get sucked under, floating weightless in a strange sun-dappled undersea world of sound. -Aquarius
6 comments:
interesting the reference to "Phonem" because its one of my all time electronic music favorites
because i have a Phonem album that was recorded underwater
"Hydro Electric" was a pretty album at that time. haven't listened to that Phonem guy in ages. is he still releasing?
i haven't seen any new albums in the store, but i was into a B.Fleischmann at the time (long time), at the time i thought they went well together
yeah Fleischmann is what got me into Morr and the whole idm thing. unfortunately he still seems stuck in "that" period, and the whole label has slipped into mediocrity.
oh i forgot to mention that this one you only listen horizontally :)
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