German Stephan Mathieu and English Janek Schaefer are two big names from the “academic” sound composing scene. Their latest collaboration “Hidden Name” is an exceptional journey through ambient textures and field recordings. Recorded during the winter of 2005 in a Victorian rural area in the South of England, this is exceptional in the way that it’s not boring as most of the micro textural music. (Sorry had to say it!)

The mixture of different elements is picture perfect here and the electronic sounds are not isolated from real world ambience at all. Drones shine on like sun through pastoral settings and I’m really thinking of playing this in my English garden through surround to feel the opener “white wings”, or the jungle habitat sounds on “cosmos” on me. (That’s in a future epoch when I have a garden & the !).

“Score for a line” where a shining drone meet church chimes and cracklings, is an instance of the floating sound that defines the general sound of the album, but there are some surprises like the shift in style on the interlude “Aisle“, where the drone’s replaced by some looping martial (kind of) sample and an intricate old time radio ambience is conjured, or the sublime “Quartet for flute, piano and cello” which sets a cinematic journey through black & white photos, with the help of Janek Schaefer’s trademark turntable and collapses into a noisy drone after 3:45. You should obviously listen to “Hidden Name” with some good speakers to experience it as close as it’s intended to be, as I’m sure everything’s been surgically placed on this one. Definitely sets some standards for this genre.

S. Mathieu & J. Schaefer - Score for a Line
S. Mathieu & J. Schaefer - Quartet for flute, piano and cello
S. Mathieu & J. Schaefer - Aisle
S. Mathieu & J. Schaefer - Belle Etoile