yyate - Société oblique

 Released: October 11

Société oblique kind of a strange album in the manner of its construction. It blends a variety of different sound sources together in an amalgam spread out of over ten free form pieces of music, all of which are named after the album and then parts one through ten. Some of the pieces we can loosely categorize as ambient with small tonal elements and spacious pads. But most of the compositions here purposefully defy expectations or categorization. The third track fits this description well as it contains a bit of sweeping atmospherics as reverberations collide into on another, but it also contains something that I can only describe as audio detritus. It feels like that audible equivalent of standing in a mostly empty parking lot and watching discarded cans and plastic bags swirl in the wind around you. The sixth track keeps up with a similar motif but feels slightly busier in most respects, most notably the element of the audio detritus as it feels less like it is being swirled by wind and it is being sorted chaotically. 

But there’s also something magnetic and yet elusive about the more tonal aspects of this album. While I certainly am always a big fan of abstract noises and field recordings, the slightly fractured character of the tones really resonate and add some kind of difficult to describe depth to what I’m hearing. Track nine is on of my favorite examples of this as what could loosely be called its lead has this small feeling presence that is somehow magnified by its slightly cracked and distorted nature. The fifth track has a similarly situated tonal element as well but it filters into the more atmospheric elements with a more seamless quality, less chaotic and smoother. 

For me, it’s the variety in the pieces as well as their flowing nature. They rarely attempt to form a real recognizable and instead opt to lean in a certain level of liminality. The soundscapes never paint a clear picture of where you’re supposed to be, but instead gives flashes of colors and textures, with the only the most fleeting of imagery. The soothing sonic chaos at play here is truly top notch.