David Kolhne – Granular Canvas

Deep and brooding, murky and submerged, ‘Granular Canvas’ reaches towards the very depths of ambient music’s foreboding underbelly. The anonymity of David Kolhne only adds to the mysterious sonic worlds crafted that exist comfortably alongside the likes of Tim Hecker, Ben Frost, and Lawrence English, whilst also clutching the fine details and imagined size of the cinematic. Kolhne successfully melds subtlety and abrasiveness in the album’s second track, ‘xy.esp’, whereas the careful extortion of micro-sounds in track five, ‘evb.v’, draws attention to well thought out textural nuances. There are moments of chaos, where sharp frequencies clash and low rounded tones spread wide across the stereo field, and also moments of tranquillity that manage to retain the slightest of tension and unease. ‘Granular Canvas’ was released on whitelabelrecs, earlier in March of this year, and appears as the first physical music release by the unknown artist, and promises a rewarding listening experience through the realms of warbling drones and distorted synths within a cavernous auditory environment.