Genre : Ambient, Electronica, Math-rock
Released : January 20th, 2023
Label : Jansen Records
FFO : Scalping, Bicurious, Tangerine Dream, Three Trapped Tigers
The last time we heard of the experimental Norwegian duo, Aiming For Enrike, we had just about entered the new decade, bright-eyed and hopeful about what the future had in store for us.
Little did we know, we were on the brink of experiencing a major historical event that would disrupt our way of life as we knew it for the foreseeable future and that we would be facing uncertainty, fear, death and isolation in a way we probably would have never even imagined before.
Sure, it's easy to look back at the past with a rose-tinted filter and convince ourselves that everything was so much better back then than it is now; but it does genuinely feel like we entered a radical shift at the turn of the decade and that the world was in a better place a few years ago before the reality of a global pandemic, the threat of a world at war and the ever-increasing menace of climate change took a strong hold of our lives.
And I personally think that this shift is fairly well represented when comparing Aiming For Enrike's newest album with their previous work, whether that was intentional or not.
2020's "Music For Working Out" felt like a care-free, gleeful ode to 80's synthwave and electronica executed with mechanical precision along with the creativity and technicality but mostly the fun and enjoyment that radiates from this type of eccentric experimental math-rock.
2023's "Empty Airports" on the other hand, is an entirely introspective, slow-paced peace of ambient work.
Loosing all of the hyperactive, cheerful frenzy yet retaining the experimentation;
"Empty Airports" invites its listener to reflect as it lulls them into a meditative state within its hypnotic waves of synthetic sounds and gently throbbing beats.
The title "Empty Airports" not only allows to anchor the music into these feelings of isolation and uncertainty that came crashing as soon as the big C hit but it also gives the listener a mental image, or map even of what they are navigating through as the record unfolds throughout its 75 minutes of run-time.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that this is a solely electronic project without any live, organic instruments since in comparison to their previous work, the duo's presence feels much more disarticulated and low-key.
In fact, "Empty Airports" feels more akin to the ambiant works of the legendary Tangerine Dream or the electronic meanderings of Blood Incantation last year with "Timewave Zero", rather than the usually energetic and convulsive math-rock of similarly experimental acts such as Bicurious or Alpha Male Tea Party.
And yet, the janky percussions of the drum kit are essential in guiding the ebb and flow of the warm layers of synths forward, and the guitar, although more disembodied than it's ever been given the multiple effects and modulations it travels through, is indeed present as it frolics airily in and out of the entrancing yet at times ominously melancholic nature of the synth arrangements.
No matter what your experience of the last few years has been, I have a feeling that the music on "Empty Airports" will somehow resonate in one way or another with some of the emotions you might have undergone.
And if it doesn't but you were searching for a contemplative album that manages to keep things interesting from start to finish, well, you're in the right place.