Vįr+üål Åįrßñß - ▚ ▛ ▜ ▟ ▞
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Vįr+üål Åįrßñß
EP
Ambient
Liam Murphy
December 16, 2021
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August 20, 2024
Tracks in this feature
Tracks in this release
The new record from London-based hypnagogic new age project A Name for Both of Us playfully beckons listeners into the wet and wonderful world of the daily routine of ducks. Based on a short video from the People's Daily, a Chinese news platform, the album imagines a day in the life of “a group of ducks who [...] meet up together every morning and go to play at the river”. While a seemingly simple concept, euphoric drones and immersive field recordings meld with playful African inspired grooves, giving a weight and importance to these ducks’ journey.
The long jaunt to the pond is underway as listeners begin the record with tracks i and ii. A ritualistic crossing over, track i and ii’s percussive mbira tones emit images of ducks’ waddling feet giddily anticipating a fresh dip in the water. Bells chime out, signalling the start of the day. Whimsical chatter swells out of playful synths as ducks mingle in the morning light. These first two tracks are the most similar in style to previous releases from the group, with their dreaminess calling to mind the enchanting 2020 release Photina Lodge. This familiarity serves to ground listeners before continuing into bold new explorations of genre and form.
A duck cries out and the party begins! Tracks iii through vi invite the listener to hop along. It is here among the groovy basslines and myriad of sot percussive sounds that the influence of African music really shines through. These upbeat danceable tracks are something quite new to A Name for Both of Us. Previous albums from the group tended to stay in the realm of hypnagogia, never venturing far from lush ambience and dreamy drone. The bold new introduction of a percussion section – albeit subtle – signals a bright new era for the project. These fresh sounds paint such vivid images of ducks jumping around, waddling wildly, and diving deep into the water for a brief moment of rest before rejoining the party. This newfound energy is found by fusing old A Name for Both of Us stylings with African rhythms, with tracks iv and v diving deepest into this inspiration by actually covering songs from Zimbabwe and the Republic of Congo respectively.
Track v in particular, a transformative remix of Soukos Stars’ Rhoda, fills the room with a pumping beat that ups the intensity of this little duck party tenfold. The joyous fiesta comes to a close with a groovy new age tune reminiscent of the frutiger aero style, it is lush and celebratory. Fading into a field recording of running water, track vi hints at a tonal shift as the ducks begin to regroup and head for home.
Compared to the previous back-to-back new age bangers, track vii invokes a much busier, more chaotic feeling. The staccato synths stumble over each other, calling to mind ducks running about and gathering their friends to return home as the day ends.
After this hustle and bustle, the ducks journey now complete, the album falls into an eerie atmosphere. Seeming to zoom out from this simple world of the ducks’ daily journey, the muffled ambience of cars brings the listener back into the world of humans. This soundscape is complemented by a cover of Karen Dalton’s song In The Evening (It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best) sung by A Name for Both of Us project collaborator Dareen Mohamad. Gentle calls of “I’m going away [...] but I may come back to see you my darling” speak to the reassurance and quaint beauty communicated by the short video. Just as this love will return, so too will the ducks each and every morning.
Pushing A Name for Both of Us into bold new territory, and seem to make promise of meeting again tomorrow is a deeply moving listen. Featuring compositions that will be familiar to fans of the project and African inspired new age jams, these confident fusions elevate a simple viral video into an earnest meditation on the inner world of ducks. Ending on a melancholic but quietly content note, the return to reality at the end of the record encourages the listener to reflect on their own life and priorities. Maybe they too are living out a routine worth documenting!
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