Satellites erode, collide, and emit, adding ever more debris to the morass already orbiting the earth. Read about it: it’s a thick film surrounding us, and may have already reached critical mass to accumulate indefinitely. Bits of metallic, electric nuggets speed around the planet, a harsh inorganic environment set against the backdrop of sub-zero silence. Magnetic fields and the pull of gravity are the invisible forces that compel this world into circulation. And Anjou‘s new self-titled release is like moving through it atop a space station Tarkovsky would have been proud to feature in Solaris. Curtains of electric beads rapping on the windows replace the crackle of rain you would expect, and the cavernous echoes of notes have the effect of making you feel extraordinarily small.

Anjou’s record label Kranky isn’t esoteric by any means, even if it hasn’t reached the level of popularity it actually deserves. This album, for instance, reunites two members of the legendary post-rock group Labradford, signed to Kranky way back in 1993, for the next logical step after post-rock’s demise. Anjou shouldn’t be compared to Labradford, though. For one, Anjou is only two members of Labradford, Robert Donne and Mark Nelson, adding Steven Hess (who has worked with the likes of Fennesz) to percussion. Anjou also casts its gaze toward a different musical heritage, looking more to the ambient minimalism of William Basinski and Windy + Carl instead of to Tortoise, shoegaze, prog rock, and so on. Anjou is speaking more to the recent evolution of ambient music that’s reaching a golden era of sorts with recent groundbreaking releases by Tim Hecker, The Stranger, and Oneohtrix Point Never.

It’s an erudite study in discipline and patience by masters of the genre. As such, however, newcomers to contemporary ambient tunes may feel a bit stranded from the outset, as someone’s first art museum venture might feel if it’s to the Guggenheim. “Adjustment” is a good first listen in this case, as well as “Readings”. But this is certainly an album that’s meant to uninterrupted from first synth beat drop to final fade-out. Some tracks are entirely absent of a discernable note, instead opting for an aesthetic of percussive static, scratching, and modular synth signal alteration. This experimentation is grounded in more accessible song structures, with tracks developing in clear segments, pulling the listener smoothly along.

At this point it seems unclear whether Anjou is a one-off comprised of artists mostly dedicated to other fantastic bands (such as Aix Em Klemm, Pan American, and the aforementioned Fennesz and Labradford). At this point, though, does it matter? This release is rewarding enough to hold us over for a while.
 

 

36

Add to the story...