AMN Reviews: Various Artists – These Clouds… (Sound in Silence)

Sound in Silence is sui generis among small electronica labels. Since 2006, Athens-based founder George Mastrokostas has curated an impressive library of ambient and adjacent artists from around the world, readily identifiable in their colorful, kraft cardboard envelopes affixed with a “polaroid style” cover image. Now, Sound in Silence celebrates its one hundredth release with the compendium These Clouds….

Two albums released in the run-up to this centenary show the refreshing variety of a label constantly evolving. Swedish musician Ludvig Cimbrelius (whose varieties of ambient work has appeared under pseudonyms including Eternell, Purl, Illuvia) unsealed Love Letters from the Sky, eight beautiful, wandering melodies played soulfully on piano (and just a jangle of guitar), under the arch of delicate washes of synth. Marta Mist is a group whose core consists of Gavin Miller (who also records as worriedaboutsatan and appears on the anthology) and Sophie Green, late of Her Name is Calla. Eyes Like Pools is an absolute gem, with a pensiveness that belies the kookiness of naming their first track after a quote from Ned Flanders. The artfully massed violins, guitars, synthesizers and more combine in an earthen, pleasant wooziness.These Clouds… features a broad array of noteworthy artists both new to the label and familiar roster hands. It’s good, so very good, all the way through. 

In testament to taste and the aesthetic of Mastrokostas, these eighteen tracks flow one into the next as if they were literally made to fit.

Panoptique Electrical and Sven Laux stroke the compilation into being with strings-rich respective tracks, one banishing the blues, the second inviting them with a firm embrace. Benoît Pioulard sends a rusty-out transmission from far off. Wil Bolton describes circles within circles. David Newlyn is in a Harold Buddian frame of mind, while Akira Kosemura, offers sky-clad piano, one of the absolute highlights of this collection. But wait, there’s more. A groaning, stretching drone by A Lily. A beacon of repeating piano notes in heady air by SineRider. “This Current Between Us” by Absent Without Leave, reeking of sad farewell. The reaching and soaring r beny. A quietly epic palimpsest by Hotel Neon.In conclusion, and in essence, may be the finest compilation of new music in the genre this year.

Stephen Fruitman