Description:	CD on Home Normal
	Format:	CD
	Genre(s):	Ambient
	Label:	Home Normal
	Price:	£7.99
	Availability:	In stock. Dispatched in 1 working day.

5
...according to our Phil on 14 January 2010.

I can never spell Konntinent right. I always do too many N's or not enough N's or occasionally throw an extra T at things to see if that works. It doesn't though. Well here's their brand new 2nd album proper (after their debut Norman Records album of the week on Symbolic Interaction) 'Opal Island' on the excellent Home Normal label. It's mastered by 12K lord Taylor Deupree and it features cover art photography by Ian Hawgood (who runs the label if you didn't know). So there's your facts...What's the music like? It's excellent. That' what it is. There's lots of glitchy weird electronics in the background ala Raster Noton or something. The electronics are very clean and precise in fact.... smothering that there's some meandering guitar somewhere in between Godspeed and July Skies. It's very sparse emotive music which will appeal to fans of Make Mine Music and the like. It's part neo classical, part experimental electronics, part pastoral, part drone, part ambient, part post rock.... loads of different elements carefully crafted together to make a surprisingly coherent album given the amount of influences and styles on board. Really excellent stuff and heartily recommended by me!!

Love this record? Hate it? Tell us.

Sound clips for Opal Island by Konntinent: on CD at Norman Records UK. CD, Home Normal, home n010, £7.99.

What their label says...

Among many obvious definitions of the ‘heart’ is this: ‘the vital center and source of one’s being, emotions, and sensibilities’.

It’s the first word I think of when I hear the work of Antony Harrison (the man behind the Konntinent moniker). And when you listen to his work, its really obvious why.

The Konntinent sound is very much based on micro-elements I guess, at least this time around. Unlike his earlier drone-based work, ‘Opal Island’ has much more of Antony’s guitar playing to the fore, as it does the gorgeous vocals of Lisa Madisson on ‘Dry eyed’, as well as Antony’s own beautifully subtle singing. It has odd rhythms coming in and out, piano, weird glitchy sounds and tones I can’t quite place. Its all in the craftsmanship you see. Its very rare to come across an artist who actually makes ‘songs’ which can also be defined as ‘pieces’ – and as such his work is so hard to place.

All I am left to do is to go back to the image of the heart. In Japan, there is a faux-English usage of the word, made adjective…the Japanese say ‘heartful’. Its on billboards, products and people use it all the time. Its basically used to describe something which is full of emotion and induces said emotion in others. Whilst the word admittedly does my head in when I am in Japan, in a nice and concise way it covers my feelings for the music Antony Harrison creates. Opal Island is a very ‘heartful’ album, as Antony is himself a very ‘heartful’ artist and songsmith. And whilst linguists will not initially thank me, after hearing this record, you just might get what I mean.

Ian Hawgood

Mastered by Taylor Deupree
Photography by Ian Hawgood

Tracklist:
01. Opal Island
02. Surrender number
03. Dry eyed
04. 44 55 33
05. Frost Fair
06. Sabotka the dreamer
07. Jansson’s Temptation
08. Numeral
09. Lossless
10. Collo & Orro
11. White Horse Falls
12. Uncertain steps to an unknown end