12/4/2023 0 Comments Encodya game reviewThe music moves in gentle, lapping waves as opposed to being driven by a beat, it’s usually towards the end of this track that I feel like I’m on strong painkillers and I start to want to just lie down and drink in the atmosphere, it’s so wonderfully calming.Ī darker tone is on show here, with almost alien/machine sounding vocoder lines weaving throughout, courtesy of Khris Clymer. As an echoing horn laconically rings through occasionally descending, brief piano runs, it’s clear already that this is an album that doesn’t feel the need to prove itself, giving itself totally to minimal ambient soundscapes, punctuated by aching, keening melodies that add to the overall sense of quiet calm – at least, so far. The tired sigh of a wet, neon skyscraper-laden cityįading in much as the first, with layers of airy synth, a lazy melody chirps in as a single, low electric bass note pulses out. This track also features brief blasts of woodwind / stringed instruments that gently fade in and out throughout. Opening with warm, floating synth and echoing single piano notes as other sounds swirl, this feels like the listener is descending through clouds, the foggy cityscape revealed to them for the first time - expansive, looming, densely populated - but oddly silent. I just wanted to say that, upon receiving the album, I played it in the background to get a feel for it but ended up getting completely drawn in and spent the next four hours just flipping the record over and over, it was such a wonderful experience, getting hips deep into the music - it genuinely felt like it was washing over me and trying to seduce me into closing my eyes and getting lost in the images evoked by the tracks, a soothing and quietly engaging experience. Usually, I focus on a detailed track-by-track breakdown of the records I cover but here, Yann Latour has created a record that seems to roll together as one, quite often more of an aural soundscape than separate pieces of music, although each still has its own identity. Below this is the tracklisting and credits of the album, and finally - the inner circle of both sides of the record again feature the two main characters from the game. At the top-centre are the words:Īgain, the dreamy tone of the wording ties in with the aural approach of the soundtrack itself. On the rear is a further, smaller image taking up the left side of two characters in the game – featured in silhouette only – huddled together under a small umbrella from the constant rain as they look out at the dark skyscrapers rising into the dreary night. The title font is captured in a bold white as, at the bottom of the cover is a simple and understated ‘An original soundtrack by Yann Latour’, printed in a font colour reminiscent of the vinyl itself. The artwork on the cover very much evokes the music within, a towering cityscape captured on a rainy evening, dotted with neon ads and hundreds of lit-up windows lighting up across the scene but a quiet absence of populace. Pressed on translucent, teal-coloured vinyl, the 10-track album clocks in at just over 36 minutes and features artwork by ENCODYA creator, Nicola Piovesan. An almost purely ambient release devoid -for the most part – of beats, drums or percussion, the layers of mood and scene are punctuated by guest spots of organic instrumentation that add character and identity whilst never deviating too far from the focus on melodic simplicity.Īn album that really set me in a (much appreciated) zen-like state. I’ve covered a lot of records over the last few years, but ENCODYA stands out as one of the most memorable.
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