Glimmer
Jacaszek
Ghostly
International.
SCQ Rating: 81%
A title like Glimmer
seems all too predictable at a time when chill-wave and its mutations continue
to shave every instrumental grain down to a sleek, 80s-tinged sliver. With
Jacaszek, we know better – especially on the heels of ‘Elegia’, the beautiful
piece he contributed to Ghostly International’s SMM: Context earlier in the
year.
An elusive unfurling
of post-classical plodding, Glimmer gathers its shine from infrequent refractions
of light touching suffocated, cave-like dwellings; the sort of place you scope out
with your palms. It bears the conflicted soul of a left-field electronic record but not
necessarily the make-up, with ‘Goldengrove’ establishing a terrain of tender harpsichord and bass clarinet. A rustle of textures pervades, often distorting
the perceived pace of ‘Dare-gale’ and storming over ‘Evening Strains To Be
Time’s Vast’, but it never dominates a record so protective of its negative
space. Even a piece with no obvious arc at all (‘Seidenen Stille’) inspires
thanks to its transient, shape-shifting arrangement.
Providing a rare
dose of organic richness to the electronic fringe, Jacaszek’s craft is all nuance,
texture and grain - kinetic sensibilities that unveil Glimmer as a previously
undiscovered playground.
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