Soundscapes Vol. 1

“Music was invented to confirm human loneliness.” – Lawrence Durrell

While a natural landscape is almost always a kind of scenery, which we look at through the constraint of our body, the sounds of the acoustic world surround us. That is, we can hear a sound behind us and this applies to the rain that falls, the cars that pass outside our window, the cicadas that sing incessantly in the summer. In addition, the sounds that can compose a soundscape are not solid shapes that are hidden from each other, which means that according to the rules of optics, a soundscape will always be “transparent”.

Ion’s new ambient album consists of 20 artificial soundscapes designed with the express intention of calming down any annoying or disturbing sonic backgrounds around the listener. As these sound soundscapes have the ability to “absorb” any auditory disturbances, each of them may also function in a loop-mode as an acoustic beacon or as a pattern of concentric circles surrounding the listener like transparent curtains, in many layers that extend beyond the urban environment.

“Soundscapes Vol. 1” is for the most part a meditative search project, building slowly and carefully with every breath and every step of a 2:22 minute drone. Some of these soundscapes may give the impression of an uplifting mood, but they all exude a somber air around them; never peaking beyond just a few short notes as they always “go off” once again after their short lifespan.