Marielle V Jakobsons - Glass Canyon (Vinyl LP, CD)

This is a record from Marielle Jakobsons (not some kind of contest between Marielle and Jakobsons as the title may lead you to expect), a Californian droney minimalist sound artist type. On this album she’s exploring the textural possibilities of combining just synthesisers and violins, taking us through a series of graceful, throbbing, melodic dark ambient passages whose moods are reminding me a little of Deathprod’s magnum opus ‘Morals & Dogma’, but which are busier and faster paced than the Norwegian drone-master’s work.

In fact for a dark ambient record this is very musical stuff, with the synths providing all manner of rumbles and throbs and whooshes and glacial drones while the violins scrape and sing, sometimes throwing in weird hypnotic loops. The textures are enveloping and varied throughout - everything from spooked out droning to twinkling, shimmering almost Philip Glass-esque melodic sections - and it’s always paced just right to hold your attention without getting right in your face.

The postman just came in and said, “There’s something wrong with your stereo” during a particularly droney passage in the malevolently paced (and excellent) ‘Cobalt Waters’. I don’t think he’s used to dark ambient. I can’t help but be surprised that there’s music this stoically emotional and coldly textured coming out of a place like California, but this is a truly excellent piece of work.