One of the maturest albums of this year is by Death Ambient, I’ve checked this album a few times but couldn’t delve into it for some reason. A week or so ago I gave it another spin using headphones and I was freaking enchanted by it. Death Ambient is the laptop jazz supergroup composed of notorious experimenters Fred Frith, Ikue Mori and Kato Hideki, however to call this an experiment would be ridiculous as this is an extremely successful manifestation which has been in the making for about 6 years.

Their third album entitled “Drunken Forest” on Tzadik’s New Japan Series which also features the veteran percussionist Jim Pugliese, famed for his work with John Cage, Philip Glass & John Zorn has some serious orchestration from Kato’s string instruments like Violin, Mandolin, Ukulele, Bass, Steel Guitar and Banjo meeting with Frith’s guitar and Ikue Mori’s drum machines and samplers to create one of the most picturesque electroacoustic ambient albums of this year. I wasn’t specifically a fan of Mori’s laptop improvisations which were mostly on the brink of being barely listenable (at least those that I’ve checked out), but this time her noise is what really binds everything together in this absolute masterpiece.

Nothing is out of place on this album, very mournful and sentimental at some points, I’m genuinly happy to have listened to this and recommend it to all who are into cinematique soundscapes. Recommend it to everyone who’s bored of all the mediocrity the dark ambient scene has produced up to this day.

Acoustic instruments scrape and dance around more obviously synthesized sounds so subtly that at times you’re totally unaware of exactly what you’re hearing, this is mysterious music, at all times totally impenetrable yet absolutely beautiful. Boomkat

Fred Frith by Benedicte Desrus