OPM: Minimalism, Abstraction and Experimentalism

pjpriiincess – T.A.S.

A four-track EP of delightfully weird but welcoming abstract electronic explorations that fall just outside the realm of ambient. Despite the utter lack of anything that could be called a beat, there are subtle rhythms at work in these pieces – a hidden pulse at work, somewhere deep beneath the surface. 

In fact, a lot of this feels like old-school ambient house and techno with all the beats and most of the chords and melodies stripped away, leaving just fascinating strings of ear candy and weird timbral explorations. Relaxing without being somnambulant, and showcasing excellent sound design without ever feeling show-offy, this is a consistently fascinating sonic landscape worth your time. 

(Listened to the entire EP)

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rauðvik – “auðnirnar”

Twenty-plus minutes of dark drones, icy textures and burbling sound design, placid enough to keep on in the background, but spooky enough to demand your attention. Throughout this piece you won’t hear a lot of melodies, riffs or hooks, but you will be taken on a sonic journey thru jagged alien landscapes. 

Icy chord clusters emerge from stygian depths, only to fall back into the darkness a second later, unresolved. Dark tendrils of droning sound writhe and contort against one another. Echoing eruptions of sound make ghostly shapes in the darkness. And somewhere, amid everything, is you, your worries and concerns washed away by waves of dark timbres.

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Sick Robot – “Space Fiend”

Aggressive and uncompromising breakbeat track that’s begging to be used to soundtrack a training or building montage in a sci-fi film. The drum sounds are raw and “real”ish, the rhythms are strong and relentless without being overwhelming and the sound design around it is dark-edged, futuristic and effective. 

Feels influenced by early Nine Inch Nails, the glory days of Big Beat/breakbeat, and a clenched-jaw love of stimulants. Fun stuff.

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Gillian Lever – “Queen of the Should”

Minimalist sound art combining spoken word poetry, noise, Foley FX and occasional small musical gestures, such as a hint of piano or some shifting synth chords, to tell an evocative and mesmerizing story. That formula continues until nearly 15 minutes in, when the piece shifts into a weird, liminal ambient techno for a couple minutes before returning to the speech and sound FX template.

Clocking in at 37 minutes with only occasional breaks from its minimal and voice-focused format, it’s a piece made for patient ears. Still, if you have the patience and adventurous audio spirit necessary to engage with this, it’s worth a listen. 

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Jeremy Muller – “Music for Botany”

A minimal experimental piece that focuses deeply, exclusively even, on the interaction of several shaker rhythms. In practice, this keeps the timbres limited and focused – just those shush-shushing, white-noise adjacent sounds shakers tend to make, moving around each other in various shifting rhythms. 

According to the liner notes, there’s also some “pre recorded audio” involved, but it’s not clear what – sounds like, “Oops, All Shakers!” from beginning to end! This piece seems to come from a tradition of academic experimental music and ethnomusical studies, but on vibes alone it could be a particularly patient IDM piece. Definitely worth a listen if you appreciate minimalism and adventurous musical explorations.

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