Port-Royal / Absent Without Leave - Magnitogorsk (Sound In Silence)
This split EP from Sound in Silence records sees two of today’s most prolific Shoegaze / Ambient acts sharing the same platform.
Italians Port-Royal team up with Greece’s Absent without Leave and I’m happy to report that the results are hypnotically stunning.
This is music created for car and train journeys -- staring from the window in awe at the passing countryside - Leylines, fields, and cloud formations, on those journeys that you happily let the world fly by, leaving all your troubles and cares so far behind, on the journey somewhere new.
Port-Royal’s efforts are synth washes of effervescent awakening, hums, chimes and pulses melting together, creating huge bright fluid soundscape that lets fly countless images coursing through the mind.
The soundtrack to the best film that you have in your head, endless Polaroid memories come to life to relive time and time again.
“Agent 008 Codename Littlehorses (Aka The Lazybones).” Not only a great title, but a deeply emotive song, too. Port-Royal's music is tinged with an aching sadness -- the sort of melancholic state that leaves you wanting the soundtrack for your woes and thus soothing them away. At times, Port-Royal’s 4 tracks are reminiscent of Young Team era Mogwai, minus the drums, think Helicon 1 and Tracy, et al.
AWL and PR remix one of each other’s tracks on this EP -- and the AWL remix of PR’s Zobione pt.2 is a masterpiece in its own right. Distant deep repetitive synth drones give way to achingly beautiful resonating guitar chimes. The drums slide in; this most stunning cinematic song gets another wondrous slant -- the sound of the clouds in slow motion and then opening to show the sun’s rays cascading across your face. My first Port-Royal experience, and I am aching to bask in more.
Up step Absent Without Leave. AWL is a one man project and that one man, Georg Mastrokostas also runs sound in Sound in Silence records (See the connection? Of course you do! Nicky). SISR have released a consistent share of great Post Rock/Ambient/Shoegaze records and the contributions to this EP are no exception.
Musically, it's more guitar orientated than Port-Royal but still as cinematic.
Plucked guitars, droning delay pedals and vast expanses of reverberating tones, skittish electronic drum patterns edge the songs over vast horizons of Ambient Post Rock joy. Think a dash of Sigur Ros mixed with slice of Mono and this tonic is a thrilling combination of genre defining genius.
“Blind” gets the Port-Royal remix treatment. To cap off the marvelous AWL tracks, Port-Royal turn this track into something wondrously titanic. Phat beats (It’s ok, there’s no bad rapping. Nicky), swarming, swirling keyboard melodies pan in and out, generating differing shades of darkness and light, “Blind” is the perfect way to close this awe inspiring EP.
Packaged in a smart cardboard sleeve, one that also has a Polaroid lovingly hand stuck to the front, this whole project has been nurtured in all the right ways and is painstakingly individual on so many levels. It feels so personal, like someone is sharing a surprise present or some astonishing secret.
Thankfully, we get to share it and I for one, will spread the word….
7.5/10
Nicky