ambient / experimental
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I surely like it when an artists comes back to use after we reviewed his/her previous works. Not only do I see that as a compliment for our work but also as an opportunity to witness the evolution of a band or project. Drawing Virtual Gardens has been featured on our website two times already and each time he received a lot of praise. On his third effort, David Gutman (the multi-instrumentalist behind this project) delves deeper into the themes of identity, waiting, time and memories.
What I like about Gutman's work is his total neglect towards genres. Sure, you can easily place this one any ambient shelve but there's always more to it with Drawing Virtual Gardens. On this album too I can hear influences from jazz, classical and drone music. Opener 'Stealing A Sound Out Of The Tropic', for instance nudges fiercely towards acts like Dale Cooper Quartet and the Dictaphones, which is loudly applauded in this household.
I do in fact applaud this entire album. Once again it's a beautiful adventure in music making and experimenting with sounds. 'Corpus Membrane Reverb' is a perfect example of that, driving on gentle soundscapes and incorporating a number of different instruments and effects. It also reminds me of O Yuki Conjugate, a band that has directly influenced me in my own music making. Quite frankly, and this is the hard truth, the works of Drawing Virtual Gardens have also influences my own recent works.
So, for the first time in my career as a reviewer, I have to admit that some of the albums I review have an immediate impact on Misantronics. The experiments with rhythm and percussion in some of the songs here can link to my own and same goes for the soundscapes. I adore the constant tension between soothing and distressed sound. The playful and experimental approach to ambient is something David Gutman and I definitely share.
'A Kind of Swirl in Amsterdam' closes this great album perfectly by combining pretty much everything I mentioned earlier in this review, plus some vocal samples. It's a strange song, an odd discussion between instruments, some gentle, some stubborn. So for me, recommending this album certainly is a must. If you're a fan of ambient or experimental electro-acoustic music, you can't go wrong with Drawing Virtual Gardens, that's for sure...
Serge
What I like about Gutman's work is his total neglect towards genres. Sure, you can easily place this one any ambient shelve but there's always more to it with Drawing Virtual Gardens. On this album too I can hear influences from jazz, classical and drone music. Opener 'Stealing A Sound Out Of The Tropic', for instance nudges fiercely towards acts like Dale Cooper Quartet and the Dictaphones, which is loudly applauded in this household.
I do in fact applaud this entire album. Once again it's a beautiful adventure in music making and experimenting with sounds. 'Corpus Membrane Reverb' is a perfect example of that, driving on gentle soundscapes and incorporating a number of different instruments and effects. It also reminds me of O Yuki Conjugate, a band that has directly influenced me in my own music making. Quite frankly, and this is the hard truth, the works of Drawing Virtual Gardens have also influences my own recent works.
So, for the first time in my career as a reviewer, I have to admit that some of the albums I review have an immediate impact on Misantronics. The experiments with rhythm and percussion in some of the songs here can link to my own and same goes for the soundscapes. I adore the constant tension between soothing and distressed sound. The playful and experimental approach to ambient is something David Gutman and I definitely share.
'A Kind of Swirl in Amsterdam' closes this great album perfectly by combining pretty much everything I mentioned earlier in this review, plus some vocal samples. It's a strange song, an odd discussion between instruments, some gentle, some stubborn. So for me, recommending this album certainly is a must. If you're a fan of ambient or experimental electro-acoustic music, you can't go wrong with Drawing Virtual Gardens, that's for sure...
Serge