Mid Sky by zakè & Angela Winter

Mid Sky, by zakè & Angela Winter (Past Inside the Present, 2024)

Available at
https://pitp.bandcamp.com/album/mid-sky

◾️◾️◾️ REVIEWS

"Mid Sky is the debut collaboration between US ambient maestro zake (aka Zach Frizzell) of Past Inside the Present label and vocalist Angela Winter, and it emerged from a year-long exchange of ideas. According to zake, Mid Sky is "the perfect orchestration between two individuals at the right moment." We agree as it beautifully navigates a realm between the terrestrial and cosmic with organic drones and ethereal vocals fort and centre.

The album opens with 'Gale,' featuring aurora-like tones and evolving vocals. Tracks like 'Precipice' mix narcotic synths with emotive vocals, while 'Terminal Sleep' contrasts dynamic drones with introspective moments. 'Advent' offers harmonic pulses and sculpted vocals, as Winter's instinctive responses to everyday sounds enrich the album's allure, leading to the monumental title track, a contemplative journey into boundless horizons that blends human and cosmic elements in graceful harmony. A perfect soundtrack to quiet introspection, Mid Sky is another gem in a long line of them from this label."

-Juno Records

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"Mid Sky is the first ever collaboration between the sound artist zakè (the pseudonym of Zach Frizzell) and the vocalist Angela Winter. They have decided over the course of a year to experiment on the ledge between the Earth and the heavens. The result is nearly two hours of eerie drone music, broken only by emotional yet wordless vocals. Zach Frizzell has done his fieldwork, combining sounds from nature with studio sounds to make the sensation of the sheer emptiness of the stratosphere. The pleasant contrast is Angela Winter’s vocals, human tones that fight against the natural realm, reminding us that this liminal zone is still inside our realm. This collaboration needed to happen: these two artists mix perfectly.

Neither artist is new to this at all, and this album indeed seems less radical. Angela Winter’s previous excursions like Sonic Essences have dealt with sheer manipulation of natural sounds, without telling us a definite story. Of course, the moulding of the sound into something ethereal has always been well in her domain. As for zakè, he has dealt with almost every angle of electronica. He has always been working with a variety of other artists, especially on his own Past Inside the Present record label. Mid Sky reminds me a little of his Carolina & Coppice Movements album, where he took to manipulating the background noises in nature with clever distortions and compositions.

The album starts with bringing us through a gale. It begins with a single, drawn-out note that symbolises the hollowing backing of the sky. Then Angela Winter’s vocals are layered on top. Sometimes they are unforgiving like harsh winds, other times they seem more comforting. Then the experience becomes more human. More and more natural sounds are incorporated. The vocals turn from bleakly sustained notes to polyphonic harmonies, and then sometimes even shimmering melodic lines.

In the finale, we are clearly ascending higher into the sky, and that original note has become a series of major chords. The tracks become briefer and more airy. The album ends with musical agreements between the voices and the drones: they melt into each other. It is probably difficult to get a more satisfying ending. Somehow, fifty-thousand feet in the air, both artists have given us an ambient experience worthy of repeating. Though many artists are inspired by nature, few have painted its greatest wonder the way zakè and Angela Winter have. I hope we keep on seeing collaborations of this scale: ambient music is at its best when dealing with themes and landscapes so deep it takes hours to reach the bottom."

-Cyclic Defrost

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"[..] PITP serves up a collaborative outing from the big chief zakè and vocalist Angela Winter. ‘Mid Sky’ is the product of “a patient exchange of ideas and arrangements over the course of more than a year” and you can tell it’s a piece of work that has been pored over. Here zakè’s brew of sweeps and drones and field recordings mix seamlessly with Angela’s otherworldy voice.

She talks of working quickly and intuitively and once her myriad of voices are recorded she shifts to “a subtractive, sculptural approach for edits” where she listens deeply until she hears “angels in the mix”. Goodness, they’re here.

While it’s not really fair to talk Cocteau Twins just because there’s a wordless vocal here, ‘Mid Sky’ does have that shimmer, it’s like the sound of the spaces between the grooves of their late 80s work, something like ‘Lazy Calm’ from ‘Victorialand’ or their Harold Budd collaborations."

-Moonbuilding Magazine

Ambient, ritual, and experimental music for thresholds, where synths, keys, and strings meet otherworldly vocals, shimmering drones, and overtones.

“Beautifully haunting.” —Bandcamp Daily

“Stunning.” —Foxy Digitalis

“Spellbinding” —Lost and Found Sounds

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