When a Synthesizer Isn’t a Synthesizer (MP3)

Wind-based ambience from the duo Paiyatuma

Despite the zone-out droning and ether-thin intonations, there’s no synthesizer per se to be heard on Arriving at Night in Ithaca, a project by the duo of Paiyatuma (MP3). That’s Thomas Park and Shane Morris, who together conjure up all manner of nocturnal moods. Reportedly the constituent parts are all wind instruments (including “trombone, flute, and found sounds such as bottles and whistles”), though they’re so deeply sublimated into the greater whole — a whole that also has its share of natural elements, including apparent insect song — that the effect is less of constituent parts and more of a deep rich texture.

[audio:http://archive.org/download/kpu114/kpu114-02-arriving-at-night-in-ithaca-radio-edit.mp3|titles=”Arriving at Night in Ithaca”|artists=Paiyatuma]

Kudos to the duo for releasing the music in a variety of formats — not only MP3 and Ogg Vorbis and the “lossless” FLAC, but also as a shorter radio edit. The version linked to from this post is but an eight-minute reduction of the longer work, which stretches out to three quarters of an hour. The release was originally posted at the kikapu.org netlabel. It’s housed at archive.org.

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