A Strangely Isolated Place Review – Espiritista by åpne sinn

14 March 2011

It’s rare to come across an album which crosses between ambient, Orb’esque psychedelia and dubby techno, let alone one which does it in a unique style. Geoff Small (åpne sinn) demonstrates exactly how with his first release on Relaxed Machinery, a relatively new label which already has a long list of artists and releases.

It sounds like there’s all kinds of meanings to Geoff’s artist name, ‘åpne sinn’ and the album name, ‘Espiritista’, roughly translates in Spanish to spiritual healer. Whilst this can be a stereotypical description of most ambient musings, Geoff’s mixture of genres and approaches on this album can afford to be associated with such, due to its diversity in tempos, depth in atmospheres and ability to remain ‘ambient’ in any background, and utterly compelling if a decent amount of attention is given.

The opening track ‘Espirtista’ lulls you into a sense of true mystical ambient/drone, but by track two (my favourite), Advaita is transporting you into a land of 1990?s style downtempo and psychedelic chill. This pattern continues throughout the album, with small bites of genius ambiance teasing more engrossing tracks such as Twinewheel, Lucky Enough and Slowdive.

Fans of ethereal ambient such as 36, Loscil and Biosphere will appreciate the overall beauty conatined in many of Espiritista tracks. Fans of The Orb and FSOL will love the classic feel to the upbeat tracks on this album and fans of Tripswitch, Joey Fehrenbach and at times, Solar Fields will enjoy the more rhythmic, beat-driven tracks. As Northcape mentioned on twitter, there’s a certain sonic air of Ultimae Records to this release.

Given I love all of the above, you can imagine how much I am enjoying this release as a whole.

Source – http://astrangelyisolatedplace.com/2011/03/14/apne-sinn-espiritista/