A gift for the Ephemerist is the second release from the ongoing collaboration between Dutch, ambient guitarist Anne Chris Bakker and British, minimal pianist and sound-recordist Andrew Heath. These four pieces chart a slow moving, lower case journey inspired by place and process. Combining tonal washes and textural recordings punctuated by pointillist piano and guitar notes to produce music that creates an ephemeral, dreamlike stasis.
They finally met when Andrew invited Chris to play in the UK’s Resound festival. This cemented a friendship and mutual admiration of each other’s music. Andrew then visited Chris in the north of the Netherlands for a week of inspired improvisation - spending their time gathering field recordings, composing and of course, cycling.
There followed an intense period of improvisation and experimentation, deep in the cold winter days of the northern Netherlands, and using elements as diverse as pianos on railway platforms and old reel to reel tape machines, Chris and Andrew worked with many hours of material to finally distil ‘A gift for the Ephemerist’.
Inspired by the landscape around them and by their temporary studio in a centuries old mill beside a frozen canal, their signature sound evolved into these four pieces. Pause and contemplate, for here, suspended in time and place, are modulating drones, fragile notes, texture and immersive driftscapes which shimmer and pulse with half-glimpsed melodies that seem to hang in the air. Overwhelmingly informed both by an open, minimal landscape and a love of process, allowing lower case sounds to form as you would unfold a map - each section revealing a new and uncharted vista
Huge thanks to Renske for studio space, bicycles and just being there.
credits
released June 10, 2019
Andrew Heath - Piano, electronics, field recordings
Anne Chris Bakker - Guitar, electronics, tape manipulation, field recordings
Artwork - Andrew Heath
Mastering - James Armstrong at Rusted Tone Recordings
supported by 7 fans who also own “a gift for the Ephemerist”
smooth but uneasy drones overlaid with beautifully curated samples(?) and subtle noise and distortion. evokes cold and loneliness while being sonically 'real'. excellent! Giles
DC experimental duo Requiem and UK cellist Simon McCorry make ambient psychedelia together that traffics in subtlety rather than bombast. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 27, 2021
supported by 7 fans who also own “a gift for the Ephemerist”
Hard to pick a favourite on this album of gentle and warm ambient tracks. I think the field recordings are beautiful as well, the whole release reminds me of sunny autumn or spring days in the park. PadraigC