Over three years since the release of his impressive debut album ‘Safn 2006-2009‘ (which collected some of his earlier solo work), Bjarni Gunnarsson (from Reykjavik, also known as one half of Einóma) presents the second full album release under his own name.
The beautiful package of ‘Processes & Potentials‘ contains 7 colorful inlays, one for the cover and one for each of the six different tracks of this album.
Just like he did on ‘Safn’, Bjarni chooses his musical position wilfully, creating soundscapes that are remarkably different from most in current ambient/electronic music.
His sounds can be harsh and noisy but at the same time it moves calmly and slowly, to surround the listener into a totally immersive soundscape.
It is impossible to determine if the sound particles originate from microscopically detailed field recordings, or from electronic signals from beyond the outermost range of space – or even both.
“Processes are defined by the way they do things instead of what they are. On this album, it is important how sound processes behave, how they relate and how they occur.”
“We can think of the world as being made of actual ‘occasions’. (…) The actual occasions are occurrences emerging from practical events, each of which comes into being and then disappears, only to be replaced by a successor. If these experiences form the basic realities of nature then in my opinion this is also a very realistic description of this album.”
With this concept, the nature of its sounds and its unexpected dynamics, “Processes & Potentials“ can not simply be labeled as ‘ambient’ in its strict sense. (“Sound Art” would be a better description).
But the “liquid and intuitive development” (Tobias Fischer) of the sounds definitely feels natural in a somewhat paradoxical way. Just go with the process flow…!