Sone Institute sounds like the name of an organization but is just one man, Roman Bezdyk.
Perhaps conscious that any solo project needs to be placed in some wider context he has given four artists the task of reinterpreting one track apiece from his latest album A Model Life.
His Manchester based label are offering these as a free download EP.
If Bezdyk was hoping his tunes to be injected with a fresh vitality and dynamism then he would surely be disappointed with the results.
If. on the other hand, he wanted his music to be stripped of drums, beats and words so that all that remained was a hazy, abstract synthesized ambience then he would be delighted.
On the basis that any release of this nature should stand up on its own merits I see little point in making a detailed compare and contrast examination of remix versus originals. Suffice to say that what struck me was how little sense of drive or momentum they the revamped tunes have.
On the opening track, M'Ling - Blakes Last Tape Mix- remixer Dollboy (Oliver Cherer) is in no hurry to get started. The first half of the six minutes consists of a gurgle of meandering ambience and an out of key rendering of Jerusalem. Eventually he decides to move things up a half gear with some broken beats and choral effects but it remains a curiously directionless piece.
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Nick Rundall's mix of Tradition & Dream leaves the track with a chilled out lounge vibe with wordless female vocals and muted brass backing mingling idly with piano and strings.
The slow and sombre mood continues on Struck By A Rock mixed by Australia's The Doomed Bird Of Providence which consists of a insubstantial synthesised drone with bass inserts.
The final track of this low key quartet - World Is Still A Confusion - was remixed by Cornwall's Kemper Norton and is dominated by a lacklustre piano loop.
The loose, apathetic feel means that it's like a soundtrack to a movie in which nothing much happens.
Sone Institute's website
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