HLER – ANCIENT GROUNDS
HLER is a Finnish duo that has been releasing music since 2018 (including LGM-1 in 2020). The duo’s name comes from the intials of its members: Heikki Lindgren and Esa Ruoho (also known as Lackluster), who both were active musicians already before they became a duo.
I’m not sure if the word (‘hler’) means anything, but according to their own description it also “describes the improvisational creative process of this ambient drone duo: Heikki mining for sound, Esa processing Heikki’s discoveries in real time, revealing hitherto undiscovered facets.”
Ancient Grounds is a beautiful example of their working method. The starting point may be similar, but each track has a different atmosphere. To quote the liner notes:
“The outcome takes the audiences to a journey through the deepest depths of the ocean floor, sends them flying with migratory birds along the Earth’s magnetic field, finally passing through the ionosphere’s static towards the Kuiper belt. And then gently return back to Terra with a purified mind.”
Ancient Grounds is the 20th album release on the Signature Dark label curated by Aleksi Myllykoski. The label is divided into two branches: Signature Dark (black) has a focus on atmospheric soundscapes, while Signature Dark Grey releases dub techno and techno ‘with a strong artistic twist’.
Ancient Grounds – obviously – is one of the ‘dark’ releases (which does not imply that the music itself is’dark’ by the way). It is a digital-only release.
POLAROID NOTES – INNER HARMONIES
Driftworks, the ’boutique’ sister label to Whitelabrecs and run by Andrew Heath and Harry Towell, is a relatively young label (started in February this year) but is quickly building an impressive catalog of releases, as well as building an online ambient music community called The Inner Echo (you can join this community by subscribing to the Driftworks newsletter).
Inner Harmonies is Driftworks’ 9th album release, presenting music by Polaroid Notes, a German musician named Andreas. Polaroid Notes has released some 19 albums and numerous EPs since 2015 on many different labels.
Most of his music starts as a spontaneous piano improvisation (‘preferably made at night’):
“like taking a photo with an old instant camera: you press the button and a little later you will see what snapshot you’ve taken”.
But it’s not ‘just’ solo piano music: the tracks are completed with synth arrangements and layered with effects.
Though Andreas lives somewhere between Munich and the Alps himself, the music on Inner Harmonies is inspired by and created on various tours through the coastal regions of Liguria in northern Italy. It’s “a declaration of love to these landscapes and the sea, to the attitude to life and to the numerous quiet places that can still be discovered even in this region characterized by tourism”
With one exception (Spaces Inbetween) all tracks are relatively long: somewhere between 11 and 19 minutes. Each track takes its time to create a floating state for the listener to dwell in a soundscape “of ascending and descending sound sections and repetitive structures in which individual instruments temporarily come to the fore and then dissolve again”.
Inner Harmonies is available on wallet style CDr, but also as a limited (and nearly sold out) special edition with a 12 page booklet and “‘found’ photograph ephemera”. Also, of course, as a digital download.