Luke Sanger - Languid Gongue

Balmat

£22.48

Cat: BALMAT01
Format: LP
Release Date: 13th August 2021
Genre: Ambient/Drone

Repress: 29 Sep 2023

A1. Cranes And Ladders
A2. Efflorescence
A3. Phrygian Pan
A4. Cocoa and Plums
A5. Mycelium Networks
A6. Yoake
A7. All Over the Shop
B1. Archaic Landscapes
B2. Basic Lurgy
B3. Searching for the Elusive Fungi
B4. Fruity Textures
B5. Your Session Has Ended
B6. Not Quite Right
B7. Only Casino for Miles

Balmat is a new label with a cloudy outline.

Jointly shepherded by Philip Sherburne and Albert Salinas, two friends living in Cardedeu, Catalonia, and on the Balearic island of Menorca, Balmat grew out of Lapsus Radio, a weekly show on Spain’s Radio 3. Balmat’s mission is simple: to foster new ideas, expand upon personal obsessions, and put enveloping sounds out into the world.

“Balmat” means “empty” or “void” in Catalan. But quite apart from any negative connotations, we prefer to think of it in terms of possibility: a space waiting to be filled.

Balmat’s first release comes from Luke Sanger, a Norwich, UK-based artist whose two decades of electronic music making have encompassed a range of tools and techniques, from MaxMSP to modular synthesis. Along the way he has built an extensive catalog encompassing ambient atmospheres, abstract soundscaping, and more. With Languid Gongue, he puts multiple approaches into play. Experiments in microtonal composition balance out pieces in standard tunings, while esoteric electronic machines merge with familiar acoustic treatments and microphone techniques.

The result is a constellation of his signature sounds: freeform new-age fantasia; spring-loaded toytronic arpeggios; quartz-driven braindance clockworks. Drifting between consonant, almost lyrical compositions and shape-shifting textural sketches, the album drifts with the nonchalance of a sky-high cirrus cloud, and it glows as if illuminated from within. When we heard the material, we knew that it was the perfect choice to launch the label. To us, it sounds like a roadmap for points unknown.