Review by Drifting, Almost Falling.
Published April 10, 2020
Published April 10, 2020
I have to admit the name Blanket Swimming threw me. I had expectations of the style of music based on 80’s synth styles from people born well after the fact, you know the whole “looking through the prism of the past from things I have read about / heard”. Instead what you get with Blanket Swimming’s album is two long form pieces of subtle, glacial paced ambience that feels like a perfect sort of soundtrack for the uncertain times we live in. It can be difficult in describing pieces like these as they rely on such small movement of sound, sometimes spread out and using repetitive phrases as a major part of their pieces.
With the title track Maloney uses delicate drones which are almost like gentle waves with melodic tones and ever so slightly plays with the textures and intensities and he infuses the piece with a variety of field recordings. Maloney is no rush which allows him to build and work on his piece over the duration. This is also felt on “Look At The Cypress In The Courtyard” which has a more classical meets William Basinski feel and shows Maloney at his best as he creates build up after build up with slight dips in the intensity of each section. As the piece progresses you begin to notice the ultra subtle changes in the sounds and how the attention veers from sound to sound as well as barely noticeable degradation which tends to come into focus in the last third of the piece.
With these two piece Maloney while not re-inventing the wheel, clearly shows that he is adept at the more minimal forms of music which can be used to calm the listener as much as they can transport them away. The two pieces have their own essence while retaining a similar kernal of an idea. With what is happening now music like this becomes somewhat of a release. “The Sunroom” is available on limited CD (60 copies) and Digital.
With the title track Maloney uses delicate drones which are almost like gentle waves with melodic tones and ever so slightly plays with the textures and intensities and he infuses the piece with a variety of field recordings. Maloney is no rush which allows him to build and work on his piece over the duration. This is also felt on “Look At The Cypress In The Courtyard” which has a more classical meets William Basinski feel and shows Maloney at his best as he creates build up after build up with slight dips in the intensity of each section. As the piece progresses you begin to notice the ultra subtle changes in the sounds and how the attention veers from sound to sound as well as barely noticeable degradation which tends to come into focus in the last third of the piece.
With these two piece Maloney while not re-inventing the wheel, clearly shows that he is adept at the more minimal forms of music which can be used to calm the listener as much as they can transport them away. The two pieces have their own essence while retaining a similar kernal of an idea. With what is happening now music like this becomes somewhat of a release. “The Sunroom” is available on limited CD (60 copies) and Digital.
Review by SoWhat.
Published March 5, 2020
Published March 5, 2020
[Italian to English:]
An instant that crystallizes becoming an expanded jumbled surf, without boundaries and temporal definition. Memories transformed into dilated sound reverberations are those that inform the two long flows collected in the new work of Nicholas Maloney under the alias Blanket Swimming, vivid sensations set to become indelible traces of one's own experience.
Sinuous synthetic currents evolve placidly building a double emotional path inspired by different visions, united by the same impact. Quiet and bright, the first of the two tracks, which gives the album its title, develops as a rarefied immersion in memory from whose warm evanescence fragmentary environmental trails emerge, creating a silent and enveloping gait that leads to dreamlike and refreshing territories. The subsequent drift is nocturnal and melancholic, marked by an obsessive cyclical trend and permeated by subdued restlessness, a stubborn and stunned progress that slowly dissolves, leaving its echo reverberating in the terminal silence.
Atmospheric hypnosis.
An instant that crystallizes becoming an expanded jumbled surf, without boundaries and temporal definition. Memories transformed into dilated sound reverberations are those that inform the two long flows collected in the new work of Nicholas Maloney under the alias Blanket Swimming, vivid sensations set to become indelible traces of one's own experience.
Sinuous synthetic currents evolve placidly building a double emotional path inspired by different visions, united by the same impact. Quiet and bright, the first of the two tracks, which gives the album its title, develops as a rarefied immersion in memory from whose warm evanescence fragmentary environmental trails emerge, creating a silent and enveloping gait that leads to dreamlike and refreshing territories. The subsequent drift is nocturnal and melancholic, marked by an obsessive cyclical trend and permeated by subdued restlessness, a stubborn and stunned progress that slowly dissolves, leaving its echo reverberating in the terminal silence.
Atmospheric hypnosis.