Fennesz – “Tom” & “Silk Road”
The Austrian guitarist and avant-garde ambient feelings-wrecker Christian Fennesz is currently at work on a new full-length studio album, which will be out later this year and which will be his first since 2014’s Bécs. And while we’re waiting for that, he’s got something new for us. Fennesz has taken two of his previously released tracks, remixed and reworked them, and released them as a new two-song EP called Station One.
The first of those two songs, the excellently titled “Tom,” originally appeared as the opening track on the 2014 compilation Modeselektor Presents Modeselektion Vol. 3. It’s a soft, reassuring ambient murmur with a few gorgeous washes of strummy guitar that pop up toward the end.
And the second new song is “Silk Road,” which has never properly been released. Instead, it played on a loop for a full day as part of an installation at the Red Bull Music Academy in New York in 2014. This one is more ominous and disruptive, with dreamy and discordant noises constantly bursting in over one another, interrupting each other. Both tracks cast their spells, but they are very different types of spells. You can listen to both of them below.
Station One is out now on Touch, and you can buy it at Bandcamp.