autumna - dirk

 Released: March 29

A deceptively simple four piece album, dirk keeps itself mostly on the side of dark ambient noises that includes a few rather un-predicted moments sprinkled throughout. The opening track, "zijnpijn" opens up the short foray with huge spaces filled to the brim with deep reverberations from several layers of droning pads. An airy quality sits on top of it all as low end swells rise and fall throughout. As it moves to the second track, much of the same vibe remains but adds a few subtle and not so subtle details, namely the almost percussive hit that bounced around the stereo space slowly and purposefully. Close to the end of the track we are hit with a bit of spoken word in Dutch that feels human but also has some kind of eerily synthetic quality to it that I just can't put my finger on. Regardless, it fits in flawlessly with its surroundings. 

The last of these four tracks (technically) seems to break a bit with the previous pieces we've heard in that in seems to eschew the darker qualities in favor of something a bit more introspective and light. "zwart water" feels like much more of a gentle and meditative track that swirls around wonderfully, feeling a bit like floating in mostly calm waters that a disturbed just enough to cause soft movements. Now, I say this is technically the last track because the final two are edits or remixes, both of which take a rather interesting twist. 

The first is an edit of the opening track that takes a somewhat minimal house approach to the reverberant ambiance. A deep kick gives the track a rhythm it previously didn't have before while maintaining the ambient feel. The second takes a variation on the third track "ongeloof" that is a bit harder to distill. A laid back rhythm keep things lower energy throughout, which is interesting as feels like it is a bit closer to a full set of percussion, but still so incredibly minimal. An interesting way to end this EP but well-fitting nonetheless.