Australian electronic and ambient artist, Zen in Space, is soon to release a collection of reworks of his debut album, “Earth Tones”. “Earth Tones” was inspired by the vast, meditative landscape of his home country. On it, Zen sought to capture the beauty and awe-inspiring effect the natural world has on our minds and bodies. Moreover, he hoped to bring greater attention to the fragility of these ecosystems and the ever more urgent need to preserve them.
Releasing on underground Sydney-based label Pharmaceutical Audio, this album breathes new life into these spacious, transportive tracks with reworks by stalwarts of Australia’s underground scene. Sydney downtempo artist, Cousin, takes on track three, “Transience”, infusing rainsticks and hand percussion into the fold to further elevate its organic and tactile characteristics. The song starts with a slow, methodical build, with the hand percussions weaving around flashing high-pitch beeps and a softly glimmering ambient wash, giving us a taste of the balancing act to come. Gradually, the track takes on a robust, tribal rhythm, that is delicately balanced with the synths and those distant, atmospheric rainsticks.
As the track continues shapeshifting, it feels as if we are being guided into a new, transcendent plain, where inherently binary concepts coexist and enhance one another. The space between machine and human, artificial and natural, mind and body; all these are blurred and distorted to transcendental effect on this song.
Gilad. L