Hiraeth by iamyank

Iamyank self-released two EPs in the last year which made him a household name in Budapest. The follow up, Hiraeth resembles his accompanying soundtrack to “Adventures of Poco Eco”, an exploratory mobile game which has earned him a critical praise in gamer circles as well. His first full length comes with 11 tracks, the adventure and exploration remains but this time it is a vertical, rather than horizontal voyage.

The lack of rolling hi-hats and richly layered textures give space for a band set up, shifting the emphasis towards an organic live sound. The first half of the album is submergence into haunted and distorted melodies. In ‘No Air’ and ‘No Light” the pulsing rhythm is trying to balance out the pitch-shifted moans and almost ‘Baba O’Reilly”-like, step sequenced synth patterns, but in ‘Silence’ the sinister synths take over in a segment what sounds like a long lost snippet of a bleak Burial dubplate. In ‘Home’ it all slows down for a minute to the sounds of sparse, echoed 808s and jingling ice cubes rolling around in a glass, only to break out in ‘Close To Us’ galloping drums and emotive strings. The latter part of the album connects the dots between the likes of Liar, Congi, murcof and mostly Shigeto and then reduces itself to construct a slowed down outro (‘Safe’) with a traditional live setup – drums fading in and out while the single notes on the keyboard invoke a deep sea soundscape.

Hiraeth is stunning dive into the abyss, a musical experiment which surrounds you and frees you from the overstimulated environment to find tranquillity in solitude.

Tracklist

I. Breath in
II. No light
III. No air
IV. Silence
V. 101300
VI. Home
VII. Close To Us
VIII. Stay
IX. Time Is Not
X. Lose
XI. Safe

Drummer from Hungary, who found emotional shelter in destructed, stretched textures

iamyank.com