Scarless Arms - I Must Have Been Here Before

Released: September 11

Since 2013, Scarless Arms (Tyves Oben) has consistently provided listeners with all manner of ambiances that range from eerie and haunting to peaceful and introspective. With I Must Have Been Here Before, he gives us a slow-burn experience that exhibits an air of mystery and intrigue, as if there is something we wish to percieve correctly but understandling is just beyond our reach. Through twelve tracks, Oben takes us through an unclear story, trying to understand a pervading sense of deja vu that refuses to explain itself. 

The story opens up with softly falling rain and soft, slightly malancholic tones on "The Time After." Here, the stage is set for a journey of discovery that refuses to resolve. As part of his narrative device, Oben employs several shorter tracks all named "Changing to Location." These short tracks have an incredibly minimalistic appraoch, but give us a a short intercession in between the more synth heavy ambiances. We are only provided foggy pictures of these "locations," although some of them reveal themselves more than others. "The Cabin at the Lonely Lake" seems to give us one of the most fleshed out pictures as airy or gently trilling synths play in the backdrop of water splashing and trickling inside what sounds like a tub. These foggy locales are never fully revealed, even as "The Story Has Ended" plays, we are simply left with the questions we began with plus a few more.