Benjamin Finger – Auditory Colors

KrysaliSound

Benjamin Finger is a rather prolific electronic artist based in Oslo and one who has spilt his largesse across numerous labels in the last ten or so years. KrysaliSound is the latest recipient and Auditory Colors is a miasma of drifting tones, mystery vocals and snatched, hallucinatory moments.

There are many instruments at play here as well as field recordings, and “alien objects” that move the pieces from mood to mood. Opener “Echo Haze” has angelic but directionless vocals from Inga-Lill Farstad that drift in the blissful sound of space, echoing and refracting, diffuse and scattered. Inga’s voice is so far removed from reality that it is as if transmitting from so far away. Sounds shuffle and dock around her on “Haunted Regrets”; it is hesitant but peaceful, as if surrounded by ghosts in an empty station, and this ability to conjure up imagery makes it compelling, and sounds seem to move at will, ebbing and flowing out of reach, the voice like a sprite.

On the title track, the sounds have that fleeting feeling that you haven’t really heard them; the equivalent of seeing something out of the corner of your eye. “Hidden Motives” is more predatory, slowed down and shimmering, the voice a little like an ambient His Name Is Alive outtake, while “Greef Signals” (sic) is a barely moving cloud with soporific, unrecognisable vocals set against a backdrop of a lulling sunset. The harmonic vision is so peaceful but mosaic-like in its intricate connections, and there is something very natural about the music, as if the basest elements have been synthesised into sound.

The cello of regular collaborator Elling Finnanger Snøfugl lends melancholy but also movement to “Kindly Abused”, and joins piano and harmonium to construct a piece full of texture and intent, drawing the listener into shady glades. It is the most structured piece on the album, full of intricate details, but shares the vibe with the dappled shade of “Celestial Curves” with its strummed guitar receding into memory.

The use of vocals on this album is fantastic. They take on an ethereal mood with the dusty loops on “See See See” vanishing into the air; they elude meaning, yet have some kind of universal sense that evolves subtly as the rack progresses. The whole journey comes to an end with the slow guitar figure of “In Isolatum”, the sounds of the fretboard encircled by an impressionistic wash. It is pretty and measured with sharp tones grabbing your attention. You can almost hear the dust on the pickups as the track drifts into silence and the disc ends.

There is no end of ideas and thought gone into this album, and the otherworldly gleam is apparent from start to finish.

-Mr Olivetti-