Pawn – Above The Winter Oaks (Review)

Blending acoustic instruments, field recordings and electronic tones, Hideki Umezawa has created an atmospheric and evocative work…

The album begins with Snow Piles. Long tasteful drones rise slowly like the sunrise in deepest winter and brittle bells ring out into frigid air. As time passes, the track evolves into a lush landscape, the listener hearing discrete electronics and snatched whispers.

In Winter Came Again, the sound manipulation is more pronounced, Umezawa cuts and reverses notes, causing unexpected rhythms in this slow burning number. Every note is expertly played and the minutes pass the listener by in a moment.

By the time Fallen has begun, each piece is beginning to blend into one mass of shimmering beauty. As Umezawa gradually reveals another aspect to his works, there are subtle shifts in time and tone. The track is underscored by a recording of somebody walking through the snow, footfalls epitomising the sound of winter. At almost nine minutes, the listener is taken on a journey as refreshing as a walk through the snow.

Bottom Of Bottle sounds like icicles in the wind, falling and crashing as if the first sign of Spring has come and the snow is finally starting to melt. The organic is mixed with the digital so well that each subtle sound is inseparable, sounding as if part of one larger instrument.

Above The Winter Oaks is a beautiful slow burning track which builds into a crescendo before finally falling, leaving just a cinematic ambience, the effect cathartic.

The latter half the album features five remixes by Umezawa’s label-mates on The Land Of, introducing another perspective on the Pawn material already heard.

Snow Piles now mixes lush strings and cold piercing tones, rising and falling more sharply, somewhat heavier now and more obviously manipulated than the original version.

Winter Came Again feels more rhythmic and mechanistic but the same echoing string tones are there, just small hints that the track is made of the same notes as its namesake.

The album closes with Wild Owls, an epic, dense work which is the perfect ending to this most atmospheric of tracks. Opening with echos and long cascading notes the piece ends with a cacophony of sound.

Just like each snowflake is made from the same makeup but remains unique, so too are the tracks on Above The Winter Oaks. Listeners will be compelled to return to this stunning record many times, especially once summer has passed and the first day of winter begins. – Review by Adam Williams for Fluid Radio

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