Glimpses of shimmering beauty

Lifeforms is a patchwork collection of ambient music and natural sounds, with occasional dialogue from cult 80s films sprinkled on top for good measure. This kind of sound collage is relatively easy to put together, but such a reductionist lens is missing the point: the result is quite beautiful.

Shimmering fragments of music come and go with no real beginning or end. You catch the occasional glimpse of a sublime melody, hidden between tranquil soundscapes, soon discarded in favour of another. Days later, it echoes in your mind, a hauntingly beautiful passage you can't quite place, and you start to wonder if perhaps you dreamed it.

This album occupies a curious niche: slightly too upbeat to be truly ambient, but far too serene to be anything else; too ominous in places to relax to, yet overall ideally suited for that purpose. It takes a while to get used to, but that patience is rewarded with glimmering fragments of ethereal beauty. I'd recommend Lifeforms to anyone who likes contemplative music to (mostly) relax to.