- Suzanne Kraft (real name Diego Herrera) and Jonny Nash seem at home in Amsterdam. The pair share a studio, in the city's Red Light District, in a complex that houses Red Light Radio, Redlight Records and Music From Memory. They've struck up a close bond, in part because they're likeminded souls with a focus on making supremely chilled music. And in Nash's Melody As Truth label, they've got the perfect outlet for their meandering sound. Everything on the label to date has either been a Jonny Nash record, a Suzanne Kraft record or a split release with music from those artists.
Passive Aggressive, however, is their first collaborative record. The album was recorded not in Amsterdam but near the M56 motorway in Cheshire in the UK. It contains particular hallmarks of each artist's sound. There's the gently billowing synths and comforting low frequencies that have been central to Herrera's recent ambient work. Nash's trademark guitar can be heard on the final track, "Time, Being," while the plucked tones of "Hanging Glass Structure" hint at the Eastern-influenced percussion that was so central to his recent solo album, Eden. Its general spaciousness also puts it on a similar footing to another one of Nash's collaborative projects, Gaussian Curve. The chords that herald the start of "Small Town," for example, would fit snugly onto The Distance.
But this album is not merely a layer cake of sounds we've heard before from Nash and Herrera. Passive Aggressive was made mostly with software-based instruments, a change from the duo's preferred hardware method. The piano flourishes, like on opening song "Photo With Grey Sky, White Clouds," are more detailed and nuanced than anything they've released in the past. Some tracks, like "Inside" and "See Yourself Out Of The Way," slip by at barely a whisper, the spaces between sounds more pronounced than ever. Passive Aggressive's assuredness shows two artists who are clearly on the same wavelength.
Tracklist01. Photo With Grey Sky, White Clouds
02. Refractory Cafe
03. Beluga's Song
04. Hanging Glass Structure
05. Inside
06. Small Town
07. See Yourself Out Of The Way
08. Time, Being