Lithea follows very much in the same scope as Hypersona and Hollow, however it expands on those albums and brings the concepts to a logical conclusion. I spoke with one of my good friends a few days ago about this album and described it as "a fog of emotions." The more I think about it the more that description is appropriate,
The continuation of the hazy and obscured production from the previous albums is not only continued here, it is pushed to the next level. Sometimes the music will be so obscured that it is difficult to tell exactly what is going on. It is distilled down into its sonic essence so much that only the most base emotions are on display. It's absolutely incredible.
The minimalist tenancies from the previous albums are also pushed further here. The album will often only have one or two things happening at once, but it never ends up feeling hollow or void of character. In fact the minimalism here is one of the albums greatest strengths. The fact that such raw emotions can be conveyed is difficult enough to do with many instruments, let alone the stripped down compositions on Lithea.
The album also contains one of my favorite ambient pieces in recent memory. Susurrus sounds like a lone row boat lost at sea in a fog so dense that nothing can be discerned except for the ever moving waves below the boat. Are we floating towards land or further out to sea? Who knows? The album simply allows the song to wonder in the sea of fog, and the listener is swept up in it's currents. Brilliant song.
Lithea is an album I will point people towards when they want minimalist ambient. It not only represents the genre well, it embraces it completely. Forgoing any sense of percussion, any sense of complexity, but still maintaining a profoundly deep sense of what it means to create moving music.
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