Style: Ambient
Primary Emotions/Themes: Searching for a ray of light, thinking you found it only to be crushed by the great weight of reality
Thoughts: There are many different types of ambient music in the world. Some are cold and bleak, others are warm and welcoming. There is another kind though, that is deep, reflective and almost profound. It is exceptionally rare to find an album that falls into this criterion and I believe that I've found one with Wounds album No Beauty in the World.
The first time I heard this album something struck me. I immediately thought it was different for a singular reason. The second track uses a distant trumpet to help drive home a foreboding atmosphere. I'm a self admitted sucker for stuff like this, and hearing a trumpet in ambient music is one of the things that I almost always fall for.
It's not that it makes the music deeper, or that it makes the music easier to listen to. Quite the opposite actually. The inclusion of this one instrument is so counter intuitive in ambient music that it takes true skill of both performance and composition to pull it off.
The trumpet is normally a loud and brash instrument. It demands attention and has a commanding presence. Ambient music is the exact opposite. It strives to go unnoticed to all but the most attentive, and rebukes outright melody and tempos for a vast majority of its play time. These two forces are seemingly in direct conflict with one another... but in this album they work.
The trumpet's inclusion is a minor one, but it's important. It brought me into the album, it made me realize that something was different about this compared to most other ambient albums. There are traces of instruments here that are not normally included in the genre. I've heard a pipe organ deep in the background. I've heard feedback from an electric guitar woven amongst the soundscapes. Ive even heard some subtle jazz leanings on tracks like Impossible Rooms.
Nothing in this album is overt, nothing is in your face, and that is why I love it. There are melodies buried in the mix. Sometimes they are more evident than others, but most of the time they will only be observed by those with a keen ear.
The album is an auditory playground for someone who loves to actively listen to music. There is so much going on in the depths of the mix that I can't even begin to touch on them here. No Beauty in the World is such an ironic title, because by it's existence it shows that there is deep beauty within the auditory realm. Few albums reach this level of depth and engagement from me and I am honored to have this in my collection.
Written March 20th 2024
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