Greece’s unsung Sound In Silence label unveils yet another imaginative venture from veteran Yorkshire-based journeyman Richard Adams

Thanks to Bandcamp, a broadening of limited-edition physical release options, determined DIY entrepreneurs and – of course – some adventurous artists, we arguably live in a golden age of small and micro labels. The downside of such creative abundance is just the lack time to collect, listen and document it all. Hence, it’s only now that this writer – who has digested a seemingly endless and bounteous run of releases from the likes of Castles In Space, Clay Pipe Music, Front & Follow, Little Crackd Rabbit, Polytechnic Youth, Second Language and Sonic Cathedral in recent years – has managed to find the headspace for something from Greece’s Sound In Silence.

From its Athens-based HQ, the imprint has been beautifully bundling-up small-run CD releases for several years now, delivering bespoke wares from the ilk of Gavin Miller, Odd Nosdram, Brave Timbers, The Declining Winter and many others along the way. Better late than never though, this alluring debut release from Western Edges is a satisfying place to make a formal introduction to Sound In Silence. No stranger to the catalogue – through past appearances with Great Panoptique Winter and The Declining Winter – this fresh project from Richard Adams (also of Hood, Memory Drawings, Northern Exchange et al) fits the enterprise’s off-piste experimentalist worldview like a glove.

Inspired by the landscapes surrounding his current base of operations in Saltaire, West Yorkshire and recorded solo with almost entirely synthetic instrumental components, Adams steers us through these eight wordless digitally-built pieces with the mystery and warmth that has characterised his most recent organically-framed repertoire, whilst exploring more elemental and rhythmic electronic impulses.

Proceedings are fairly evenly divided between two main contrasting moods: foreboding and blissful. Hence, in the former tranche “You Look So Beautiful From Up Here” twines together desolate murmurs and piano-aping plaintiveness; the title-track merges mechanical murkiness with ethereal washes; “You’re Going to Miss My Love” encircles the ears as an ecclesiastical sci-fi rumination; and “All Downhill From Here” unpeels with eerie shimmering minimalism.

As affecting as the darker side of the equations are, the lighter moments really give Prowess its heart. Thus, the sublime “Suddenly: A Dream” soothes with its wafting synth and meditative organ-like layers; the beats-driven “Solid Gold Soul” and “Very Good On the Rushes” both soar like lost great collaborations between Boards Of Canada and Aphex Twin; and the serene seven-minute closer “Absence” sprawls-out as an immersive amniotic ambient bath.

Whilst some might prefer Richard Adams’s earthier ensemble-centric endeavours, there’s no doubt that the solitary voyaging of Western Edges has forged yet another imaginative and inviting route for his forever remoulding muse. More soon please…

soundinsilencerecords.bandcamp.com

Adrian
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