With winter’s approach to our doorstep, sunlight slips markedly and unavoidably away from our line of sight. Up to November’s final day, we have been silently welcoming the change of scenery, and now, by getting much more accustomed, we have embraced the thin, freezing air and the different pace of our routine. As each day passes, we become more easily drawn to slow, perhaps cold-felt, and atmospheric pieces that will bring mental and somewhat lasting comfort not only in our spare hours. Thus, in sync with all the previous, the eleven pieces of our Orb Premieres: November 2023 hosted on our channel this month embrace and outline that wintry concept.
Johanna Knutsson – Fold 2
The playful tones of Johanna Knutsson’s “Fold 2” shrink reality’s borders with their experimental sharpness, leaving atmospheric hues in this attempt to reshape and overcome one’s own creativity. This track is from the collaborative Exquisite Corpse EP with Hans Berg, designed based on a surrealist game and released on their label UFO Recordings.
EM + STAV – Odd (Forest Drive West Remix)
Inciting an enduring burst of percussive maelstrom from the original track’s innate dynamic, Forest Drive West’s take on EM + Stav’s “Odd” melds in it an organically textured palette to conjure a bridge between the vigorous sonic outlines and the mysteriously hazy core. The remix is one of the four tracks of EM + Stav’s EP Endless, released on Joylift.
Random Alias – Fast Rate
Grinding on old-school rave rails, “Fast Rate” from Random Alias exhausts with futuristic, fast-paced abstractions the glimmer of electro and acid territories for an absorbing and highly rhythmic tension. “Fast Rate” is found on the homonymous four-track EP on the Breakfast On Mars label’s catalog.
Young Adults – Psychosomatic
“Psychosomatic” electronic jams spur Young Adults’ dubby mechanics, encapsulating a devised view of how synthetic dreams would sound if designed and implemented in a stripped-out and minimalistic artificial habitat. That is the last of the four tracks from Young Adults’ Prescription Only EP, available via Private Parts.
Joe Davies – Cygnus (feat. Space Drum Meditation)
“Cygnus,” the collaborative track between Joe Davies and Space Drum Meditation, enables a persistent, beautifully saturated loop of atmospheric tides to wash ashore a multitude of soothing arrangements, assembling and directing the etheric parts of the elements towards an intrinsically tranquil experience. “Cygnus” is one of the eight original tracks in Joe Davies’ debut album Shields In Full Sunlight on Smallville Records.
Voal – Take My Hand
With its slow-burning pulsations and gentle unwinding of “Take My Hand,” Shoal and Vand’s new project Voal transmits pure, swirling flows and comforting vapours to provoke a spiritual escapade through its imaginative soundscapes. That is the fourth and final track in Voal’s debut Saffron EP on the Dutch label ISOTOOP.
Strategy – No Defects
Strategy’s “No Defects” harnesses a heavy, percussive groove in a boiling and multifaceted conglomerate of sonic elements, hypnotising with its twisting recurrence and vivifying with well-placed, shaky breaks and quivering cuts. The track is taken from The Wet Room LP, released on Community Library.
swills & phil//mills – Ephemera
“Ephemera” swings in the abstract, ambiental world designed by Swills and Phil Mills, orbiting well within the cosmic stillness with only a few transmitting bleeps to maintain interaction and connection with the far-off living world. This cut is on Before New Angels debut LP from the Dutch electronic duo and is available in the Something Happening Somewhere (SoHaSo) catalog.
Soreab – Trappola
Contorted, high-dense energetic beams perforate “Trappola”’s robust shell, as Soreab incorporates revitalising and soft melodic pinches to restore its currently rippled and coarse sonic tapestry. “Trappola” is found in Maschera EP on London’s label Baroque Sunburst.
Steevio – Gaeaf
Steevio’s “Gaeaf” is a tribalistic-like excursion to distorted realities with polyrhythmic intervals and sudden blows of screeching melodies that induce a sense of uneasiness as it leads beyond existence’s veil and towards distant, elevated planes. This track is part of Winter Nights seasonal compilation from Initiate Records.
Vromm – Horizon
Presenting an ever so immersive and eerie atmosphere in “Horizon,” Vromm capitalises on the whimsical dynamic given from the hypnotic glimmer of revolving bleeps and the vibrations of UK’s proto-breakbeats for an eclectic rotation of submergence and rising through synths and gracious saxophonic keys. This single is released via R&S Records.
