Wahn - Echo Mist Light

 Released: February 20

With his previous recent releases, Wahn’s music had this swirling quality to it. Synths that feels as through they are moving in gently overlapping circles and creating that constant sense of inward movement. For Echo Mist Light, some of that is still there but there’s a greater focus on producing this very airy and sometimes cavernous aesthetic in each track. Many of the tracks here feel positively huge, not like overbearing or omnipresent, but more of a sense that we’re standing in a positively massive place as we listen to it. You can hear this quality predominantly in the percussion, which feels inexplicably cavernous at times without being cacophonous. This is a core part of tracks like “Phase Memory,” which has kicks that feel tight yet full of space with just the perfect bit of air on it. 

The spots on the album where beats and percussion are de-emphasized are where we get a bit more of that swirling aesthetic Wahn has a penchant for. Granted, it is far less prominent here, but there’s a bit of it on “A Familiar Unease” with this almost racing sensation in the leads and a small inward swirl movement in the pads. But there’s keenest part of the track comes near the end as much of the tracks fades away and the bells that form a lead take over in airy stillness. Quite a poignant moment with a magnificent air about it. 

While Wahn gets into some of his previous tricks on Echo Mist Light, this album really is quite a deviation in many ways. The prominent focus on beats and rhythms gives direction towards something more house or dance oriented while the airy and sometimes glitchy aesthetic of the synths around those beats takes it more to the ambient experimental realm. But the balance and tension between these vying motifs gives us something with both solid fundamental elements as well as a bunch of weird and tingly ear candy. Just experimental enough for the oddballs and just grounded enough for those less odd.