Ryan Burns, Author at The Sights And Sounds

Chill

[Ambient/Minimalist] Steve Hauschildt – Watertowers

September 5, 2014 Ryan Burns 0

Just sit there and hear those overlapping melodies. Just listen. Let them submerge you, drawing you in like a current below the star-studded sheen of a lapping brook. Let them take you away from wherever it is you are and most likely don’t want to be. Listen to the twinkling piano telling the synths it’s […]

Album Reviews

[DARK INDIE/SLOWCORE] The Antlers – Familiars (Album Review)

June 18, 2014 Ryan Burns 0

The Antlers surprise us with every release, showing above all how much devastatingly beautiful diversity is possible within a relatively constrained stylistic range. Their break from 2009’s lo-fi dark-indie Hospice to 2011’s orchestral, atmospheric Burst Apart was greater than their latest shift to Familiars, but departs lyrically, instrumentally, and sonically in ways that expand the […]

Album Reviews

[ELECTRONIC/MINIMAL] Hauschka – ‘Abandoned City’ Album Review

April 20, 2014 Ryan Burns 0

I’m going to go out on a limb and trust that you, The Sights and Sounds reader, are going to be more than a little into Hauschka’s Abandoned City. Its scratchy, muted piano keys and barely-detectable production are probably not what your senses are accustomed to confronting. And musically Hauschka takes as much from classical-cum-experimental […]

Minimal House

[MINIMALIST] Douglas Dare – “Nile”

February 27, 2014 Ryan Burns 0

When visions dance across your eyelids at night, each simple idea resonates into a cavernous haze of ambience. The ideas themselves may not be new, and in fact they’re probably triggered by subconscious desires and fears, it doesn’t matter as much as the “feeling” and the “presence” of the dream. Douglas Dare’s “Nile” approaches simplicity […]

Album Reviews

[MINIMALIST/EXPERIMENTAL] Actress – ‘Ghettoville’ EP Review

February 10, 2014 Ryan Burns 0

On his latest release, London-based Darren Cunningham, under his moniker Actress, has a lofty agenda planned for you. And he won’t let you know what it is before he’s ready. In “Ghettoville”, Actress doesn’t so much try to capture you and rope you in against your will – he’s more interested in inconspicuously “doing his […]