Ultramarine - Meditations. LP [UK IMPORT]
'Meditations' is two long-form episodic ambient pieces performed with a reduced palette of kalimba, treated guitar, wavetable & analogue synths and hardware effects; recorded in London with Andy Ramsay (Stereolab).
"Lovely ambient breezes from Ultramarine, originally issued by their longterm fans at Les Disques Du Crépuscule, and now on vinyl via band member Paul Hammond’s Real Soon.
Embedded in warmly atmospheric field recordings of Baha, Brazil, ‘Meditations’ is a truly balmy bounty built from twinkling Kalimba, lilting guitar and floating synth pads executed in a way that suggests, not tells, and leaves loads of room for the listener to construct their own narrative.
Unfolding in two parts, the first drifts from what sounds like a cafe by the coast, to more natural, elemental water rhythms and checks back again via sweetly humid scenes strafed with colourfully plumed animaliculae. The second part picks up in dreamier dimensions with plucked melodies that unspool into duskier scenes lapped by tidal waters and fringed in enchanted synth strokes. There are definite similarities between this album and the waves of reissued Japanese environmental music, and while it’s maybe difficult, or even unnecessary to put a finger on why or how they are different, there’s just something more hypnagogic and balmy about this sound that effortlessly draws eyes to half-mast."