- Just two releases into International Feel's mini-album series and they've already cemented their ethos, with submissions from Len Leise and CFCF rendering a vision of Balearic in the 21st century. It's a sound heavily influenced by labels like ECM and Windham Hill, full of fluttering ambience that moves at a gentle trickle. So far the music has been more for spas than sunsets, but the slow-moving beauty of the series is evident.
With the announcement that the third installment would feature Germany's Wolf Müller (AKA Jan Schulte), it seemed that, if not a funky world beat, a heavier Balearic beat was to follow. Schulte is no stranger to International Feel, handing in no less than four remixes of Jose Padilla last year (the hand-stamped white label ones were particularly playful and tribal). For The Sound Of Glades, Schulte's percolating hand percussion tendencies are wedded to his partner Cass. (AKA Niklas Rehme-Schlüter), whose own work deeply explores the ambient side of things.
For the better half of the album's 16-minute title track, the duo are firmly in Rehme-Schlüter's side of the court. A sound like resonating wine glasses opens the song, soon mixing with strummed autoharp and field recordings of birds chortling and water gurgling. It sounds so pastoral and natural that only when a bird warble spins backwards do you remember that the piece was carefully constructed. Despite its length, the track feels like an anti-epic, never gathering speed or growing louder. Instead, it's content to remain hushed, and it soon slides back into the ether—the breeziest 16 minutes you could hope to hear.
"Miyazaki" is even quieter, the bubbles and chimes providing the barest of pulses. The duo's new age sensibilities are evident throughout, but Schulte's spritely hand drums perk up the B-side. The wooden thrums and struck metal brighten the pan flute and slinky bass of "Aiolos." While most of The Sound Of Glades feels like a foggy dream state, "Glade Runner" closely resembles Schulte's remixes, with his eclectic polyrhythms joined by darting buzzes and bird calls. As it carefully falls away, it becomes difficult to differentiate from the birds you might hear outside, which seems like Schulte and Rehme-Schlüter's intent.
Tracklist01. The Sound Of Glades
02. Miyazaki
03. Aiolos
04. Applepie Dreams
05. Glade Runner