An ambient/drone practitioner of the Young Laptop-Slinging Generation, Sima Kim has racked up a surprising number of releases both physical and digital since he began recording in 2011, to the point that he’s already issued a collection of miscellaneous past works “from sold out things and free compilations.” I could say something about the lack of quality control kids these days have been exhibiting (*grumble grumble* back in my day, you recorded 30 albums at home and you never showed them to anyone, not even your mother, man, not even your cat *merrr* and then, then you could maybe think about a physical release). The truth is that what I’ve heard of Kim’s sprawling output has uniformly pleased me. May he remain this prolific indefinitely and issue five more Compilations of Half-Remembered Glockenspiel-laden Drone Sessions before the year’s end.
“subsidence,” the first track we’ve heard from Kim’s forthcoming Faded EP, showcases a dense, surprisingly wide stereophonic spread brimming with two-tone loops, delay-drenched guitar washes, and pleasant (perhaps obligatory) field-recorded nature sounds. Kim almost lives up to the Arvo Pärt name checks in his press materials, allowing the track to breathe and revel in its own near-holy atmosphere without introducing any disruptive lead voices.
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On February 28, Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Unknown Tone Records issues Faded in a very limited edition of 50 cassettes. If you can’t wait that long, I imagine you can find enough of Sima Kim’s music online to keep you in a state of Perpetual Ambient Drift in the meantime (if you’re into that sort of thing [I am]).
• Sima Kim: http://simakim.tumblr.com
• Unknown Tone Records: http://www.unknowntone.com