We've noted many times how much we enjoy meeting new artists, one of the great benefits of running a netlabel. Just as cool, however, is to hear new collaborations from folks who are already established as Earth Mantra contributors, particularly when those folks are some of our favorite artists anywhere. Such is our pleasure today, as we unveil the new release "Coalesce" by Frequent Sync, the ambient partnership of Darren Harper and Jacob Newman.
Regular listeners will know how much we enjoy the work of both of these two musicians. So it was with great anticipation and expectation that we hit the play button the first time we listened to this submission. And folks, we were not disappointed.
Jacob and Darren are both well known for their deep, immersive ambient drones and soundscapes. Clearly both are masters of the ambient tone poem and are well adept at sculpting dreamy sonic vistas that are as suitable for meditation or background mood as they are for active listening or contemplation. But taken together, there is a lovely synergy at play here, a subtle feedback effect in which their separate points of view dovetail into a whole new thing of beauty. Indeed, the music of "Coalesce" has an effortless quality, a seamless and polished feeling of unity where it is impossible to tell where Darren takes up and Jacob leaves off. It is not easy for two artists to accomplish such a homogenous blending of their disparate styles; it requires hard work, clear communication, and good chemistry between the two. But Darren and Jacob make it look easy.
For the music on this album is just heavenly, a bottomless collection of carefully crafted textural ambience that we want to hear again and again. Born from various improvised studio sessions between January and August of this year, the pieces reflect a balance between organic drifts and diffusions, as well as more synthetic environments that contain subtle amounts of rhythmic movement. We would go so far as to say that this is among the best work either of these two artists have ever produced, and that is really saying something. Clearly the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One can only hope that Jacob and Darren continue to collaborate, so we all can enjoy the fruits of their labor.
So it is with great pleasure that we unveil "Coalesce", the new album by Frequent Sync. Surely one of the top releases of 2010, and an album we could not be happier to distribute to our listeners. Highly, highly recommended.
As always, all Earth Mantra releases are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license. For commercial use, please contact us.
![[earman139] Frequent Sync - Coalesce](/img/work/nomencl/m_2959.jpg "[earman139] Frequent Sync - Coalesce")
