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The genre of dreamtone found its footing last year. With landmark releases helping to provide a set of sonic and aesthetic characteristics to identify it by as well as labels like DreamSphere popping up to provide a steady but dedicated output, it was undeniable that it would start on that familiar path of internet genre evolution.
On that path, you will have releases that stand out from the rest. That seem to test the waters with new methodologies while still playing by the freshly constructed ‘rules’ of the genre. ≽ܫ≼ & fairy lights begins in a way that almost instantly cements it as a memorable release that could be placed under the dreamtone genre label. Sweet violin melodies begin to leak out with sprays of glimmering euphoria and piano. The sound is unmistakably one of an Asian style, achieving that heady vertiginous sound that conjures images of pagodas and individuals at peace with their surroundings, atop a hill and closer to the infinite skies. The sound is instantly dreamy and brims over into a general wash of euphoria. This first track achieves an incredible feat of presenting tranquility while sounding somewhat uncertain, as the artist lets the emotion of the first part gush over into a shroud of beauty.
More inventive sampling happens midway through the release as Avicii’s Wake Me Up is transformed into something between a nightcore edit and an epic formless ballad. The sample reaches out endlessly, that intangible emotion one feels just after they awake from some emotive tale that played out in their head in the midst of the night. The appropriation of such a widely known song adds to the subconscious energy in the track, your sleeping mind stretching this universally recognised hook into something unfathomably sublime and meaningful.
fairy lights brings swirling instrumentation rising up from the murky darkness, a sense of uncertainty but warmth apparent once again. ⰞᛜⳘᚳᚧ ᛉᛜⳘ ᛢᚾᛁᛈⲔ ᚣᚱᛜⳘᚢᚧ emits such a heat that it slowly becomes incendiary, its texture turning coarse as an impassioned power emerges from nothingness. Fairly daunting metallic dissonance gives way to a cool, calming euphoria. A much more classically dreamtone cut with its fluid textures and drawn out sequences, there is still a special glow that emanates from it; in the way it breaches into distortion gently as it still persists in climbing higher and higher towards the heavens. There is a striking gentleness in parts, particularly the light vocals toward the end.
The 20-minute odyssey offered as our conclusion is much more airy in its delivery. Swirling gossamer pads vaulting and straightening out in the distance, again, creeping sometimes into crackling noise due to the emotive power. This vitality does venture into more eerie pastures though, as long drawn out voices call across a great void. A shining example of this kind of ambient music’s ability to shape soundscapes in a sublime and overwhelming way.
“echoes from the echoes” reads the first line on the bandcamp description for this special release. Not only do the duo successfully fulfil this challenging quota, presenting sprawling ambient works that explore the soulfulness of diaphanous sound, they do so in an inventive way. Utilising popular samples that don’t directly lend themselves to the ghostly style of dreamtone music, but smoothing edges and alchemising what were solid musical ventures into something more detached and hallowed.
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