ALPFV / Quentin Lachapèle / Port Sleep / Dust Tail / Of Mountains and Seas - AMBIENT TRANSMISSION


 

Released: October 11

This short little release from ambient composer A Last Picture From Voayger is actually a lovely little compilation from him and several other artists that explicitly uses samples from his latest sample pack. You can find the sample pack through a link on his Bandcamp if you are interested in creating your own variations on the themes heard here, but here we will be focused on the results that have come from these artists utilization of the pack. For much of the EP, the tracks use samples from the pack almost exclusively with the two exceptions being a piano on “Last Summer” and a guitar on “Heracles.” But it is quite inspiring to hear the depth of expression that can be shown even when deriving your sounds from the same place as each other. 

This little jaunt though the stars opens with an original composition from ALPFV himself, giving us something of a baseline for what the original sounds consist of, leaning heavily into cinematic tones and spacious pads that open up a sene of wonder. The following track by Quentin Lachapele continues this, seeming to mutate the lead sound we heard in the first track and accompanying it with a heartfelt piano. Port Sleep’s entry following this is equally emotive, though the presence of a singular melody has been slightly washed away, opting instead to focus on the interplay between more ethereal and shapeless sounds. Dust Tail’s “Hedgehog’s Playground” brings some of this melodic focus back but keeps with the same theme while “Heracles” by Of Mountains and Seas takes us into a more fully drone atmosphere with a soft and faded guitar coming in well after the halfway point. 

It feels very much like the flow of the album is one of slow disintegration. While everything is firmly ambient, it feels as though the sounds become slowly unfocused as the album proceeds. This, in turn, creates a sensation of getting farther away from a known point in space such as a planet or star until you are surrounded by more void than anything else. And it’s a feeling I rather like.  


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