Transient Cat - Longform Ambient for Troubled Times

 

Released: February 26

Straightforward in name, Longform Ambient for Troubled Times is true to its premise. A single longform piece clocking in at right around 20 minutes, the piece opens up as anything but soothing. Mechanical noise and garbling of the transmission opens the track up though it’s not exactly harsh. It feels a lot like walking outside during a busy day with all the environmental noise you would expect, just slightly amplified. But then this noise subsides abruptly, leaving us in silence for a short moment until the floating synths come into our ears. 

The mood of the rest of the track isn’t exactly upbeat or angelic. Reflecting the times it references, dark and foreboding drones slowly creep into the picture, tinting everything in audible hues of light grey and sepia. It quickly becomes apparent that the purpose of this track is not to assuage us in troubled times, but simply to reflect the troubled times. The track slowly evolves from floating omni-frequency drones into narrow oscillations of a single sound, supported by a few darker drones surrounding it as it slowly veers back to the noises it opened up with. It never actually returns to its beginning, instead become more and more ethereal and haunting as vocaloid-type drones slowly rise in the mix and keep us in that darkly reflective place. 

Overall, it’s a brief but poignant piece. It captures the feelings of angst, hopelessness, and sorrow we all face as the world only becomes more uncertain. But it captures them beautifully and provides the listener with a sort of mild catharsis that is so desperately needed.