NEAR THE PARENTHESIS
Music For The Forest Concourse
CATMD176
n5MD 2010
12 Tracks. 61mins49secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD

Surfing the wave of lush cinematic electronic music, Near The Parenthesis’s Tim Arndt has, in the space of three records, refined a very personal style, which often relies heavily on sumptuous soundscapes and sweeping melodies. With his latest effort, Music For The Forest Concourse, released on n5MD, the San Francisco-based producer and musician has taken this to a very different level, as he adds elegant piano sections to this exquisitely layered compositions to greatly accentuate the evocative power of his music.

While his work as Near The Parenthesis has always been primarily electronic-based, Arndt has, over the years, played guitar and piano in several bands, and has occasionally incorporated some of these in his solo work. Here though, he has deliberately taken the step of creating music that would largely rely on piano-led melodies, which, placed over delicate electronic backdrops, create, throughout the record, a particularly effective dreamy setting. Arndt’s sonic constructions are often extremely dense and complex affairs here, and it is difficult to identify exactly what is happening at any particular moment, yet these are rather expertly assembled to never overwhelm or intend to dazzle. Instead, they only serve to bind each piece together and create a universe unique to this record. Such enterprise can sometimes lead to overindulgence, and this album occasionally comes to it, but Arndt keeps it all under control by ensuring his compositions do not extend unnecessarily.

The opening and closing tracks, Good Evening and Good Night, appear to suggest that Music For The Forest Concourse is a nocturnal record, something that is also in some way conveyed by the use of down tempo rhythmic sections, gentle melodies, smooth soundscapes and occasional distant voices which can be spotted as they dissipate. There is a certain melancholy in Arndt’s work which is particularly potent here, especially on tracks such as Good Evening, Pollarding Trees, Within An Orbit, Inertia (Stay Right Here) or closing piece Good Night. This gives the album an undeniable consistence, but it also means that it all tends to sound a tad too uniform, with no truly memorable moments to show for. And this is very much the problem here. While the tracks are all extremely beautifully put together and produced, the album lacks focal points and eventually appears to wander aimlessly within what becomes a much too restrictive template.

3.1/5

Near The Parenthesis | n5MD
Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD

NEAR THE PARENTHESIS
L’Eixample
CATMD159
n5MD 2008
09 Tracks. 53mins02secs

For his third album, San Francisco-based electronic musician Tim Amdt, who has been officiating under the strange pseudonym of Near The Parenthesis for a few years now, sought inspiration during a trip to Barcelona, and more particularly to the nineteenth century district of L’Eixample, renowned for its modernist architecture, including some of Gaudi’s best known buildings.

Having spent years in various formations through the years, Amdt finally established himself as a solo artist toward the beginning of the decade. His first album, Go Out And See, was published in 2006 on Canadian imprint Music Made By People, and was followed by an EP on Duotone that same year. Signed to n5MD shortly after, the second NTP album, Of Soft Construction, was released in 2007.

With L’Eixample, Amdt returns to the gentle atmospheric postcards that defined his previous outputs and expands on the already rich soundscapes and textures that served them. The nine tracks collected here seamlessly morph into one another and melodies effortlessly float above the minute formations that act as main backbone for each individual piece. Sounding like representations of crisp, cold and foggy winter mornings, where familiar settings are swallowed in a dense veil and become haunting shapes, Amdt’s compositions move slowly, revealing various facets of their individual scope with each new exposure. But, behind the dense textural curtain which covers the whole album, lush instrumentations and sequences can be heard. Distant voices, softened pianos or rounded electric guitars create unique spaces within the music and, while contributing greatly to the overall mood, also manage to radiate altogether much more vivid tones. On Cedra’s Plan for instance, the main piano melody which emerges from the shifting waters of the first half of the piece gives a much earthier feel to the latter part. SMDM is instantly more clearly defined, but yet again, it is the piano that contrasts with its resolutely vaporous backdrop. On Empty Square, piano and processed guitars create a mood reminiscent of the collaboration between former Cocteau Twins guitarist Robin Guthrie and ambient composer Harold Budd, but then the track takes a turn for the barer and more desolate until just a distant voice remains, and on opening piece Modernisme, ethereal voices contribute to the overall haunting feel of the composition.

Tim Amdt has created with his third album an exquisite atmospheric soundtrack. The refined soundscapes and moods serve his melodies beautifully, and contribute to create an extremely consistent and cinematic collection.

4.1/5

Near The Parenthesis | n5MD
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