Anyone who thinks laptop electronica has no soul should give this album a spin.
Tokyo based, Ametsub has produced a brilliant follow up to his 2006 debut Lunar Cryptics.
The Nothings Of The North was originally released in 2009 on Progressive Form and has now been licensed to the newly revitalised Mille Plateaux label.
Still only in his early 20s, the German label have identified a major talent.
The 12 track album takes the form of a musical travelog inspired by a trip to Iceland. Sonically it transports the listener on a journey away from the harsh energy of city life and tailors fluid glitchy structures to mostly calming effect.
Most tracks are built around fine piano playing which is either minimalistic and melodic, or else has a John Cage-type discordance. The arrangements are meticulously crafted and precise yet always allow space to go off at tangents.
These qualities can be heard well on Lichen With Piano (my personal favourite) or on Repeatedly, a track which has been remixed by Helios. The latter is also accompanied by a cool video where organic shapes and colours literally envelop a city.
Repeatedly made me think of another Icelandic connection through Byork's 'Desired Constellation' which has the lines "With a palmful of stars/ I throw them like dice/Repeatedly". And Byork's superb albums Vespertine or Medulla are appropriate reference points if you are looking for comparisons to the atmosphere Ametsub has created on this album. I can think of no higher praise than that.
A small reservation is I'm not sure that the more frenetic energy of tracks like Time For Trees or 66 fit in so well with the calm, luminous mood of the album's concept.
In general, however, this is an album which lovers of artists like Alva Noto, Murcof and Riuchi Sakamoto need to hear.
