It’s always darkest before the dawn.
That’s what they say, anyway, but it’s probably pretty dark all night too. Sure, you may be measuring relative darknesses for a scientific purpose, or maybe you’re that annoying person at social gatherings who simply must be the center of attention by proving random esoteric poetics. Whatever the reason, it’s beside the point. It’s dark at night. Then it’s dawn. Our purposes here are fulfilled.
Nicholas Langley, Third Kind Records label head and introspective ambient artist extraordinaire, doubles down on Entropy: Soundtracks and Ambients by appending Volume 2 to the end of the title. This is to differentiate it from Volume 1, I guess obviously, in case you missed it back there in 2015. And just so you feel old, although Volume 1 was released a mere (almost) four years ago, the recordings dated from 1994 and 1995, which, uh, was when I was in high school. So … I listened to a lot of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden then.
But this! This is new stuff, not a cleaning-out-the-hard-drive kind of experiment. Langley was inspired by nocturnal “walks, trips, and dwellings” as he pieced these compositions together, infusing the vibe of the night time (the right time) into his quiet meditations. Each piece is a dogged example of wrangling the quietude of the evening into a palpable experience, and each is perfect for that midnight stroll around the neighborhood, or across the field, or even down a brightly lit urban street.
It may be darkest before the dawn, but that darkest time stretches for a while and lets you meditate over it. Langley just gives us the proper accompaniment.
[Visit full site to view media]Entropy Soundtracks & Ambients Volume 2 by Nicholas Langley