Jeannine Schulz had a prolific 2020, and while her most recent record dates back to the end of July, coming up on two months ago, there’s little reason to worry about a longer pause ahead. That was the brief Tiān, following shortly on When Fragments Align, both of which were self-released, and, back a bit further in March, Luminous, which came out on the Polar Seas label. Tiān, like Fragments before it, expresses a welcome expansion of the held-shutter, soft-focus, deep-field ambient music that Schulz has produced over the past couple years. It introduces light but certain textures, actual percussive elements that set and keep a pace. How those sounds, notably in the singsong “Xīn,” merge with the backing sound field, how their presence gently pushes the haze to the rear without formally drawing a line, is part of Schulz’s considered compositional accomplishment. A simple delay on a secondary pulse echoes into the distance, merging beat with atmosphere.
Schulz is based in Hamburg, Germany. Album released at jeannineschulz.bandcamp.com.