If you ever wondered what ambient music of the 21st century could sound like, then you should explore the musical spheres of 'ifsonever'. This colorful debut-album draws a blueprint of an urban ambient club record of a parallel universe. A collage of beautifully improvised pieces, strictly recorded in 'one takes'. A gripping fusion that brings together the warm analog textures of classic vintage synthesizers and electronic urban ambiences.Trying to appreciate the recent times of silence and deceleration, Daniel Helmer aka ifsonever has quickly developed a tonal language as a solo artist. With a non-compromising approach he would visit his studio, a cozy garden shed, to record one new track a day in strictly analog fashion as 'one takes'. His aim for this project was to capture the innocence and instinctive creative energy of the present moment. These 9 timeless pieces invite the listener to explore hypnotic and meditative atmospheres such as on the opener 'transpose' or on 'jonesy dreams of birds', as well as gloomy and almost mystical sounding tracks such as 'total global' or 'an unexpected error has occurred'. ifsonever is a wonderful amalgamation of organic, laid-back sounds and electronic, club oriented elements.Recorded at a time when social contact was forbidden and culture was at a standstill, many professional musicians felt challenged not to feel useless when performances and sessions in public were cancelled, while the need for expression, participation and communication persisted. What happens when you've read all your books, when you're tired of looking at screens, and when you're digitally saturated? Then the unbearable lightness of being will begin. Daniel Helmer decided to let his creativity flow into a picture depicting that moment in time. He gave himself the opportunity to reflect this period through the creation of music. Not always an easy thing to do when the only social interactions would be cats passing by or the sound of children playing nearby. However that can be exactly the perfect tranquil surrounding to ground oneself in the here and now and draw inspiration from the inside. This self titled album reflects a peaceful journey from start to finish.Two old friends have been invited to contribute overdubs in hindsight. MillianX is a film composer and noise artist, a colleague from the Viennese film academy. Both worked together on the film score for the science fiction movie 'Rubikon' while the album was in it's final stages. So a collaboration was an obvious choice. The creamy arpeggiated synthline created for 'jonesy dreams of birds' was extended by Millianx with some field recordings and a big cloudy synthwave that dips into a vast sea of noise.Guido Spannocchi is a London based jazz musician. Both knew each other for several years but never had the chance to work together. When Daniel Helmer wrote 'an unknown error has occurred' he imagined a saxophone layer to accompany the existing synthline. But when the two musicians finally got together to record in the legendary jazz club 'Porgy & Bess', Guido just let his creativity flow and jammed freely to the track with a totally unique jazz vibe.
Release date:
November 18, 2022
Label:
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