Searching For Colors is a feel-good project on the surface, but it’s also musically masterful, thoughtful and intentional in its direction, and undoubtedly highlights the very best of our generation’s instrumental prowess and potential in reclaiming the prestigious corners of timeless music.
Instrumental
Proxxes achieves a fine balance of all essential elements as a contemporary DJ. The skill require to let euphoric and evocative music fully embrace its listeners, alongside the creative ambition and heart to make something that feels genuine and ethereal. Weave in that inherent versatility, and whilst the Proxxes style becomes easy to recognise, no two tracks are ever the same.
The Touch Of Time is conceptual by nature, but entirely free from lyrics – gifting listeners their own unique experience and escapism as they delve into these melodic and intense to euphoric compositions.
Backed by another fireside set of visuals, juxtaposition is a crucial aspect of the artistry of Björn Donath. The music presents an ambient to heavy metal arrangement but at a surprisingly mellow, cinematic tempo, the scene feels arena-ready and boldly passionate, yet the setting is calm, collected, ready to relax. The whole thing utilises polar opposites to captivate its audience, and the result is a rather perfectly timed three-plus minutes of expressive and modestly evolving emotion.
The work feels devoted to its story, this prolonged melodic venture of changing emotions – rather than simply a showcase of the quickness and skill of a pianist. That approach is rare these days, and allows the album to ignite its rightful spark within the first few moments of listening.
German guitarist and composer Björn Donath masters the skill and emotion of instrumental escapism, with the eclectically played 8-string guitar and surrounding composition of Peace Within.
Instrumentally eclectic world music and traditional folk tones unite with electric guitar and strong grooves – Woven Green provide the vastness of organic musical escapism, with the beautifully unpredictable and imaginative album Emergence.
Cinematic mastery designed to humbly envelop listeners in a progressively intense, slowly but surely evolving blanket of sound and feeling – Hungarian composer and producer Zságer Balázs captures the essence of immersive audio, with the provocative, powerful and deeply moving single Esik Eső.
Featuring a pristine intertwining of delicate synths, a choir of breathy vocal layers and modest organic rhythms, This Life feels like a near-euphoric ode to the atmospheric musicality of eras past – as well as an inspiring and uplifting celebration of life and the world itself.
Aviram Spies ensures the connection between title and experience. A work that perfectly encapsulates the implications of its name – On The Edge of an Endless Forest takes you to precisely the purity and vastness promised. The sound is that of a nostalgic movie-made classical realm, familiar but unpredictable, and softly spellbinding to let play and surround you.
Intertwine the pulsating bass and beat combo of Gotye with an intoxicating but subtle blend of jazz, trip hop and natural word ambience, and you’re almost on track to imagine the creative embrace of Koyla and Tensky’s Nomads.
Known for their purely improvised albums, the self-defined instrumental cult Mycena are a Croatian collaborative project with four albums already to their name. Their approach is to fearlessly push the boundaries of musical expression, to find new flavours of psychedelic intensity and depth, and to limit nothing and no one during that process.