Greenhouse Hinterlands [ARTPL-253] Japan Music CD

Product Description

Green-House, the eco-ambient duo whose first visit to Japan in 2023 is still fresh in our memories, releases their long-awaited third album, their first release since signing with the prestigious Ghostly International label. Embarking on an uncharted sonic landscape (hinterland) that fluidly traverses the boundaries between city and wild, organism and digital, as if embracing nature and confirming its connection. Here lies a new-era masterpiece, vividly resonating with overflowing joy and wonder. Olive Ardizoni and Michael Flanagan, working as Green-House, explore the connection between humanity and the natural world through joyful, dynamic synthesis. Their collaboration is profoundly deep; it's a dialogue process where frequencies and expressions overlap in layers, like camouflage. The project can start with either artist. Sometimes Ardizoni writes the melody and Flanagan builds the harmonics, and vice versa. The true power of Green-House lies in the moment when their ideas intertwine like a double helix, sublimating into a profound resonance that transcends individual elements. With their debut full-length album, "Hinterlands," released on the prestigious Ghostly International label, they further refine their vibrant instrumental songcraft, achieving a freer dynamism unbound by genre. This album is more active and percussive than their previous works, brimming with emotionally rich energy. The flowing sequence of sounds projects a vast landscape before the listener's eyes. "Hinterlands" confronts the beauty of this world with a kind of "radical honesty." Since 2020, the duo, who have released numerous works on the Los Angeles label Leaving Records, have always maintained a curiosity about the environment. Live instruments and synthesizers, high-definition sound design, and Ardizoni's uniquely original melodies?all contribute to their sound. Using these techniques, they paint a multitude of spaces with sound, from familiar places to distant, unfamiliar lands (hinterlands). This journey begins vividly from the very start of the album. In the opening track, "Walking Through The Maples," the vibrant, complex layers evoke the feeling of walking through a forest that has just awakened. The following track, "Mist On The Moat," paints an introspective landscape shrouded in mist, providing a serene sense of immersion. "The Cloud Table" is a track that symbolizes the direction of this work. Percussive elements are emphasized more than ever before, with a light rhythm and floating synthesizers maintaining an exquisite balance. In "The Wind Through The Chimes," a delicate texture unfolds, as if the movement of the wind has been transformed into sound, inviting the listener into a brief moment of meditation. And then there is the title track, "Hinterlands." Here, the vastness of the "untrodden lands," the theme of the entire album, and the subtle pulse of life found there are expressed with dramatic compositional power. In the following tracks, "The Silent Summer" and "The Bird Of Paradise," Green-House's signature colorful and evocative soundscapes continue to pour forth. Green-House's music cannot be easily confined to existing categories. It clearly stands apart from New Age thought and spirituality, and the beauty and density of its sonic construction can no longer be fully described by the word "ambient." In this work, which boldly ventures into the realms of IDM and contemporary music, what remains as an underlying current is an open curiosity and sense of wonder towards the world. "I want to express emotions such as 'happiness' and 'joy,' which are often underestimated in art, as something unwavering and legitimate within music," says Ardizoni. Even without lyrics, her multifaceted personality shines brilliantly from every single particle of sound. "Hinterlands" is more than just an album. It is a new map for experiencing the world we live in more vividly and deeply.