A Lily, aka James Vella of UK post rockers Yndi Halda, has released Ten Drones on Cassette as a collectible CDr in an edition of 200 to mess with us. It is not a cassette; I repeat, it is not a cassette.
It was originally released on cassette.
Let me back up.
Ten Drones on Cassette was originally ten separate ambient pieces lasting thirty-seven to fifty minutes each, and each piece was released on a single cassette. Each cassette was released in an edition of one. If you’re lucky enough to have one of the original releases, your reward is feeling good about yourself, because I doubt there’s a market for the cassettes, regardless of scarcity.
Anyway, Ten Drones collects edits of the originals, and the whole thing lasts about fifty minutes, a much more digestible amount for the average listener (although buying the CD comes with a download code for the full pieces). Each piece is named after the person it was created for or inspired by — and I can’t help but wonder why James didn’t do one for me.
C’mon James, “Ryan” would look so good on this tracklist.
Those given the sonic treatment are immortalized in the billowing tones. Each is presented with a cascading landscape unfolding in time lapse that’s their little world and theirs alone, because their existence encouraged a single human being to magically conjure that world for them. The shifts in timbre and palette from one track to the next infer the subtleties of personality. Each is a beautiful, flowering, conscious composition.
I wish I had a magic soundworld of my own I could disappear into. I’d leave all you suckers behind.
So I guess we’ll all just have to borrow these spaces, these environments, from the lucky others. That seems to be the point of this release.
And it truly is beautiful, tranquil shit. Get your drift on over at sound in silence.
More about: A Lily, Yndi Halda
