Disquiet

Corruption, the equal parts prolific and mysterious Japanese noisemaker, has returned to SoundCloud after an unexplained six-month absence. That absence hasn’t been complete, in that the Corruption [Bandcamp account](https://corruption-music-drugstore.bandcamp.com/) has been collecting numerous albums (most of them archival, suggesting a possible pandemic stasis) in the interim. Two tracks, though, have appeared on SoundCloud in the past few days, one titled “out of service,” which may be intended as a marker for an account on hiatus (we’ll see). It’s peak Corruption, just over a minute of noise for its own wonderful sake, a rhythmic procedural that transforms widely and, yet, somehow slowly during its course, brief runtime.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/corrption](https://soundcloud.com/corrption/out-of-service-original).

Kent Sparling has a way with atmospheric ambient music that is entirely his own. His work has a naturalist quality and a fantastic quality in equal amounts, and they coexist in something akin to harmony. He achieves a balance that is as much sound design as it is composition. Those, too, exist in a balance akin to harmony. The extended hushed chord that is “Tinted Bilaval,” which is up there with Sparling’s best work, contains oceanic depth, orchestral depth, deep forest depth. This isn’t merely the depth of cavernous echo, or the end result of sonic smoke and mirrors. It is a depth of numerous, carefully considered layers. Each time through (I had it on repeat this evening), one can listen to (and focus on) foreground and background separately, and to various junctures in between, and as elements from each zone exchange places with the grace of a waltz, or perhaps the grace of a falling leaf. Or more to the point: both. The track takes its title from Indian music, and you can hear in “Tinted Bilaval” a droning presence like the swelling of a tanpura, one presence among myriad.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/purling](https://soundcloud.com/purling/tinted-bilaval-version). More from Sparling at [kentsparling.com](http://www.kentsparling.com/). I’ve been a fan of Sparling’s music for the longest time. According to a search of this website, I first mentioned him here [15 years ago](https://disquiet.com/2005/05/01/tangents-11/). That might have been the first time, but I feel like it was earlier still.

Ambalek’s “Quick Shadows Slow Sun” is built, according to a brief liner note, on samples of guitar, sourced from the act that goes by the name imwaiting ([soundcloud.com/imwaiting](https://soundcloud.com/imwaiting)), though there’s more going on here than those samples alone. There is a swirling choir, and swollen piano, and rough interference, and the slow (per the track’s title) sawing of bowed instruments (cello and violin, apparently, which like the piano are virtual). As for the guitar, it isn’t heard as guitar. It’s been stretched (extended, granulated) like so much cotton candy until it merges with the choir, perhaps becomes that gentle interference.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/ambalek](https://soundcloud.com/ambalek/quick-shadows-slow-sun). More from Amalek at [twitter.com/_ambalek](https://twitter.com/_ambalek), [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/c/Ambalek), and [instagram.com/_ambalek](https://www.instagram.com/_ambalek/). Track located thanks to a repost by Stray Wools ([soundcloud.com/everythingdies](https://soundcloud.com/everythingdies)).