Elian – Whispers, Then Silence

If I would simply define “ambient” as “drone“, or as “ignorable music“, then Elian‘s “Whispers, Then Silence” would not really fit in here: this roller-coaster ride of electronic soundscapes is definitely not created for repeated playing in the background!

This is clear from the 15-minute title track opening the album: starting with a minimal vibraphone theme, there’s a sudden atmosphere change in the middle, leading to machines running amok for seemingly endless minutes until the end of the track.

Immediately followed by “The Happy Cynism of a Creative Mind”, that starts with extremely high-pitched metallic noises slowly evolving into vinyl scratching noises, before lowering into regions that part of you probably would prefer NOT to be.

In fact it is hard to find the words to describe the album. Maybe the titles tell best: “Sea-Sick Sailors”, “Magnification and Minimization” and “Lesson in Never Again”.
By the time you have reached the end of this album your mouth will probably have dropped open from sheer amazement.

But this dóes require a certain ‘receptiveness’ for this kind of adventure, because “Whispers, then Silence”  definitely is no “easy listening” album!

Maybe Home Normal is taking a bit of a risk in releasing an album as daring as this, so very different from the other label releases. But, on the other hand, it just underlines the label’s openmindedness.

“It doesn’t fit into any scene or exact definition, and whilst that may put some people off, it shouldn’t.”