Continuing the first tentative steps into a new year of music, it seems fitting to focus next on the discovery of a brand new net label launched late last year by two brothers from Montreal who ambient music fans may know by their respective solo monikers of Lamasz and Grandbruit. Described as “an ambient label focusing on delicately curated musical and visual textures” Florina Cassettes is introduced by a collaborative EP by its founders that fulfills the remit with six meditative drones swaddled in gauzy layers of melancholic beauty.
As for the title, one can take La première sortie de Florina quite literally as the label’s inaugural release, but it may well also be a nod to the fine art motif they have adopted with perhaps a reference to Renoir’s famous “At the Theatre (La Première Sortie)”. Visually, that link is provided via the artwork that graces the album cover – a macro zoom close-up of a section of “Oak Ridge” by Canadian painter & sculptor Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Côté.
The effect is to create a thoroughly pleasing combination of impressionistic brushstrokes of both sound and color. This ‘first outing’ of Florina Casettes is a lovely one indeed. (Note: The label has also issued its second release now which has just become available, this one by Polish ambient producer Sebby Kowal).
Order: https://florinacassettes.bandcamp.com/album/la-premi-re-sortie-de-florina
La première sortie de Florina is available digitally and in a cassette tape edition limited to 50 units. The album was mastered by James Edward Armstrong and features design by Montreal-based artist Anne-Julie Dudemaine.
Stationary Travels 