Aydio

For all the music out there that is trying to hit you over the head with one emotion or another, it's refreshing to find something that's ambiguous. Something that gives you carte blanche to drift off and leave your avalanche thoughts behind for a fleeting moment. Now there are many artists in the ambient realm that are trying to hypnotize you with hours of deep long swells and other aural manipulations but even that can seem forced. Sometimes it's just the right repetition of un-frantic rhythms that can do just the thing to allow that moment of transcendence. Not transcendence in some grand spiritual sense but merely the departure from the chatter of thoughts that can cloud and confound the mind.

On his latest release Inversion, London instrumental electronic producer Aydio hypnotizes with his mantra inducing, loop-based tracks. However, the real beauty comes from the subtlety in which he gradually morphs the various lines like the blooming of a flower rather than the dragon-chasing ratcheting builds of some of his brethren. Each track has the feel of a different daily event or occurrence which strung together, make up a life. It's not until the final track where Aydio allows himself to be moved by the grandeur of it all, letting his epic side take over.

'The Surface of Revolution' begins with a light guitar groove over a pulsing breakbeat. An ebowed guitar lends a floating lead to induce a 'branches swaying in the breeze' feel. Far away eastern vocals call back to ancestors as a persistent keyboard pushes slowly into the future. The creative collage serves to prevent the mind from dwelling on any particular thought, allowing it space to flow freely.

The ensuing album flows quite seamlessly from track to track. Each having their own mood and identity but very cohesively serving the whole. Whooshes of reverb, shimmers of delayed guitar, ubiquitous eastern vocals and percussion, all give the record a transportive vibe. By the time you hit the journey's end, the final track 'Brave New World', it seems like no time has passed at all, you've been whisked away. The closer features more emotional strings and intense drumming than the rest of the album, bringing the journey to a fitting climax. Aydio even knows to take an album such as this in for a nice smooth landing allowing its climax to slowly unfold with a few minutes of denouement to close things out.

Inversion is a beautiful record. It is warm and flowing, hypnotic and serene. Some might call it perfect background music but that's not exactly true. It's more like music to put YOU in the background.