Entry 292 - Dryft - From Stasis

 

Ambient music is such a crazy genre. On one end you have droning music that changes once every 33.54 minutes. On another you have field recordings where it's nothing but nature sounds and maybe a few random notes on a piano thrown in. One thing you don't see very often though is ambient music with a percussion component to it. Dryft aims to change that with this release.

From Stasis is essentially drone ambient with a destructive percussive element. I hesitate to even call this ambient because the percussion and beats are so disruptive to everything. When the percussion comes in it doesn't only make its presence known it demands all the attention in the music... everything else becomes secondary.

In between the percussive assaults the music is quite tranquil if not a bit dark. The cover is quite apt, this does feel like someone floating through space with nothing else around them... that is without the percussion happening at the same time. It's quite a contrast... and this contrast is where the real character of From Stasis is shown.

By meshing two elements that should have nothing to do with each other Dryft has created a rather novel style. Neither one of these styles is unique in and of themselves but the combination of the two is quite interesting to say the least. The execution isn't always amazing, but it remains interesting enough to keep my attention throughout the five tracks on the album. Curious to see where Dryft ends up going from here.